siliH. 


EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND 
JAPANESE    ART 


PORTRAIT   OF   A   PRIEST 
OLD   TOSA    SCHOOL 

In  the  Gillot  Collection,  Louvre 


EPOCHS  <?/  CHINESE 
JAPANESE    ART 


AN  OUTLINE  HISTORT  OF 
EAST    ASIATIC     DESIGN. 


By 

ERNEST  F.  FENOLLOSA, 

Formerly  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the  Imperial  University) 

of  Tokio,  Commissioner  of  Fine  Arts  to  the  Japanese 

Government,  Etc. 


NEW   AND    REVISED    EDITION, 
WITH   COPIOUS   NOTES    BY   PROFESSOR    PETRUCCI. 


VOLUME     IT. 


NEW   YORK:    FREDERICK   A.    STOKES   COMPANY 
LONDON  :     WILLIAM    HEINEMANN 


First  published,  191 2. 
New  Edition,   191 3. 


Printed  in  England. 


CONTENTS 

VOLUME   II. 


X.     Idealistic    Art    in    China.      Northern    Sung  i 

XI.     Idealistic    Art    in    China.        Southern    Sung        30 

XII.      Idealistic     Art      in      Japan.        Ashikaga        60 

XIII.  Idealistic    Art     in    Japan.       The  Early 

Kano         .......        89 

XIV.  Modern     Aristocratic    Art     in     Japan. 

The    Later    Kano    and    the    Korin 
School      .  .  .  .  .  .  .111 


XV. 
XVI. 


Modern    Chinese    Art.      The   Tsing    or 

Manchu    Dynasties      .  .  .  .      14c 


Modern    Plebeian    Art    in    Kioto.      The 

Shijo  School    ......      159 

XVII.     Modern    Plebeian    Art    in    Yedo.     Ukiyo-ye      179 


I»2 
194 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

VOLUME    II. 

FN  COLOUR. 
Portrait  of  a  Priest  Frontispiece 

In  the  Gillot  Collection,  Louvre. 

TO    FACE    PA(;K 

The  Earthly  Paradise  34 

{British  Museum). 

A  Fair  Hermit  in  Mount  Lo-fou  58 

Painting  said  to  be  by  Rin  Teikei  (Lin  Ting-kuei)  60 

At  Daitokuji. 

The  Three  Founders  96 

Fenollosa-  Weld  Collection,  Bost»n. 

Screen — Iris  on  Gold  112 

A  Panel  from  the  famous  Hikon^  Screen 

Fan 

Monsieur  G.  Bullier,  Paris. 

Girls  under  Cherry  Trees  198 

{British  Museum). 

The  Waterfall  of  Yoro  200 

{British  Museum). 

Bridge  in  Rain  202 

{British  Museum). 

IN  MONOCHROME. 
Lower  Portion  of  one  of  the  alleged  Godoshi  (Wu  Tao  Tzu)  Landscapes  6 

Kept  in  the  Temple  of  Daitokjtji. 

Landscape  with  Cow  8 

By  Hankwan  (Fan  K'uan). 

Painting  by  the  Chinese  Artist  Taiso  (Tai  Sung)  8 

Copied  probably  by  Kano  I  sen.     Collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 

Group  of  Rakan  (or  Arhats)  watching  Storks  14 

School  of  Ririomin  (Li  Lung  mien). 

One  of  the  Rakan   (in   Arhat)  i6 

From  the  set  owned  by  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer.     By  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien) . 

Rakan  (or  Arhat)  in  Trance  upon  Water  18 

School  of  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien) 

Sleeping  Hotei  20 

By  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien). 

The  Famous  Yuima  or  Vimalakirti  (Copy)  20 

By  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien). 
VOL.    II.  A 


X  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

TO   FACE   PAGE 

The  Painting  by  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien)  of  his  own  Villa,   "  Riomin- 

ZAN"  22 

Drawing— Head  of  a  Chinese  Lady  24 

By  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien  J .     Owned  by  A/rs.  H.  0.  Havemeyer,  of  New  York. 

Black  Bamboo  26 

By  Bunyoka. 

Painting  by  Kiso  Kotei  (Hui-Tsung)  26 

Daitokuji. 

Tartar  Hunting  28 

By  Ria?ichu  (Li  An-chung). 

Cloud  Landscape  28 

By  Beigensho  (Mi  Yuan-chafigJ. 

Genre  Sketch  of  a  Chinese  Peddler  of  Toys  28 

By  Jinkomi  {Kao  K'o-ming). 

Painting  :   Sung  Lady  leaning  against  a  Pine  Tree  28 

Attributed  to  Chosenri  ( Chao  Ta-nienJ.     Collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 

Stone  Bridge  near  Hangchow,  at  the  present  day  30 

Bamboo  and  Villa  in  Winter  3^ 

By  Bayen  (Ma  Yuan  J. 

Remains  of  an  old  Hang  Chow  Garden,  at  the  present  day  36 

Small  Crouching  Tiger  3^ 

By  Moyeki  (Mao  Yih).     In  the  Collection  of  Mr.  Charles  /..  Freer. 

Villa  with  Pine  Tree  4° 

By  Bayen  (Ma  Yuan  J. 

Detail  of  Coast  Scene  42 

By  Kakei  (Hsia  Kztei). 

Waterfall  in  a  Circle  42 

By  Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei ).     Copied  by  Kano  Tanyu. 

Landscape  42 

By  Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei). 

"  Where  my  pathway  came  to  an  end  by  the  rising  waters  covered, 
I  sat  me  down  to  watch  the  shapes  in  the  mist  that  over  it  hovered." 

Painting  of  the  Poet  Rinnasei  (Lin  Pu)  42 

By  Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei). 

Flying  Stork  44 

A  t  Shokokuji.     Rensh  iren. 

Palace  in  Circle  46 

By  Kameiyen  (Hsia  Ming-yuan  J. 

Ideal  Study  of  Chinese  Palace  46 

By  Kimura. 

Copy  of  Painting  46 

By  Riokai  {Liang  Ch'ieh). 

Painting  of  a  Mountain  Hermit  48 

By  Riokai  (Liang  Ch'ieh). 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS.  xi 

TO    FACE    I'AGK 

Rakan  (Arhat)  with  Snake  48 

By  Mokkti(Mu  ChH). 


The  Famous  Kwannon 

By  Mokkei  (Mu  Ch'i).     Temple  of  Daitokuji. 


50 


"  Music  WITHOUT  Instruments '"  52 

By  Gessan  (Yiieh  San). 

A  Supper  Scene  52 

Attributed  to  Tchao  Meng-fu. 

Crumpled  Camellias  54 

By  Chien  Hsiian  (Yuan). 

A  Grove  of  Bamboo  swayed  by  a  passing  Storm  54 

By  Gen  Danshidzui. 

Takkai  Sennin  56 

By  Ganki  (  Yen  HuiJ. 

Portrait  of  the  Wild  Hermit  Lad  Kanzan  56 

By  Ganki  {Yen  HiiiJ.     Collection  of  Mr.  Kawasaki,  Hiogo,  Japan. 

Ladies  Writing  58 

By  Torin  {Tang  Yin)  (Ming).     Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 

Outline  Painting — Woman  Dancing  58 

Kiuyei  (ChHu  Ying). 

Sennin  Riding  on  Deer  (Copy)  62 

Mommukan. 

Painting  of  Rock,  Orchid  and  Bamboo  in  Circle,  and  Buffaloes  Swimming  64 

By  Gok^ianshi  and  Kawo  (Chokuan  and  Nen  Kao). 

Rakan  (or  Arhats)  68 

By  Cho  Dcnsu.     At  To/ukuji. 

Refectory  and  Garden  of  Tofukuji  70 

Two  Bird  Panels  from  a   Screen  74 

By  Jasoku. 

Wooden  Portrait  Statue  of  Ashikaga  Yoshimasa  78 

"  The  Lorenzo  de  Medici  of  Japan,"  at  Ginkakuji,  near  Kioto. 

Painting  80 

By  Sesshu. 

Sesshu's  Jurojin,  or  "Spirit  of  Longevity"  82 

The  chief  treasure  in  the  collection  of  Marquis  Hachisuka. 

Detail  of  Stork  and  Plum  Screen  84 

By  Sesshu. 

One  of  the  Pair  of  Shubun  Landscape  Screens  84 

Fenollosa-  Weld  Collection,  Boston. 

Great  Screen  by  Sesshu  84 

Formerly  owned  by  Mr.  IVaggener,  of  Washington^  noiv  in  the  col  a  ction  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 

Detail  of  the  Famous  Mori  Roll  86 

By  Sesshu. 

Example  of  his  "  RouGji  Style  "  in  Landscape  Work  88 

By  Sesshu. 


XII  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

to  face  page 
Detail  of  Vanishing  Trees  88 

By  Se7shu.     From  the  Mori  Roll. 

Portrait  of  Confucius  92 

By  k'ano  Masanobu.     Copy  by  Kano  Tanyu.     Fenollosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston. 

MONJU  94 

In  the  Boston  iMuseum. 

Interior  of  Nijo  Castle  100 

Painting  of  an  Eagle  102 

By  Kano  Utanosuke.     Fenollosa-  Weld  Collection,  Boston. 

Painting  104 

By  Kano  Motonobu. 

Trees  108 

By  Kano  Shoshu. 

One  of  a  Pair  of  Screens  representing  Chinese  Court  iio 

By  Kano  Yeitoku.     Fenollosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston. 

Detail  of  Flower  Screen  114 

By  Korin. 

Detail  of  Flower  Screen  114 

By  Korin. 

Three  Pieces  of  Pottery  114 

By  Kenzan. 

Chinese  Palace  and  Terraces  116 

By  Kano  Tanyu. 

Great  Plum  Branch  in  Snow  118 

By  Kano  Yeitoku. 

Farm  House  and  Peasants  120 

By  Kano  Koi. 

Design  on  a  Fan  128 

By  Koyetsu. 

Ivy  Screen — Two  Panels  130 

Koyetsu.     Collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 

Detail  of  Screen  with  Wind-tossed  Indian  Maize  on  Gold  130 

By  Koyetsu.     Collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 

Magnolia  Screen  132 

By  Koyetsu. 


Three  Noblemen  in  Iris  Garden 

By  Korin. 


134 


Two  Geese  Flying  136 

By  Sotatsu. 

Two-Panel  Screen  of  Chrysanthemums  138 

By  Korin. 

Study  of  Wild  Pinks  (detail)  138 

By  Sotatsu. 

Wave  Screen  138 

By  Korin.     Fenollosa-  Weld  Collection,  Boston. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS.  xm 

to  face  page 
Landscape  with    Horses  140 

By  Bus  son. 

Modern  Rice-paper  Trivialities  140 

Example  of  a  Bunjinga  Landscape  146 

Wild  Goose  and  Moon  164 

By  Okio. 

Screen — Winter  Landscape  166 

Okio. 

Storm  Dragon  Screen  i68 

By  Okio. 

Sleeping  Fox  170 

By  R.  Tetsuzan. 

Monkeys,  showing  Broad  Treatment  oy  Fur  172 

So  sen. 

Monkeys,  showing  Minute  Treatment  of  Fur  172 

So  sen. 

Deer  174 

By  Ganku. 

Fine  Study  of  Flowers,  Foliage,  and  Birds  176 

By  Giokuho.     Fenollosa-  Weld  Collection.^  Boston. 

Painting  176 

School  of  Matahei. 

Plum  Branch  and  Nightingales  178 

By  Hoyen.     Fenollosa-  Weld  Collection,  Boston. 

Fuji  from  Enoshima  178 

By  Hoyen.     Fenollosa-  Weld  Collection. 

Farm  Huts  and  Well-sweep  178 

By  Hoyen.     Fenollosa-  Weld  Collection,  Boston, 

School  of  Matahei  184 

Page  of  Book  Illustrations  184 

By  Moronobu, 

Example  of  Otsuye  184 

Painting  186 

By  Moronobu. 

Early  Painting  of  Harunobu 

Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 


Painting  by  Shigemasa 

Collection  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 

Painting 

By  Klyonaga.     Mr.  Howard  Mansfield, 


190 


Painting  190 

By  Sukenobu. 


192 


Painting  202 

By  Hokusai.     Collection  of  Mt.  Charles  L.  Freer. 


LIST    OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

■^1^  AT    END   OF    VOLUME 


Early  "Tan-ye,"  Hand-coloured 

By  Kiyomasv. 

Early  Black  and  White  Print 

By  Kiyonobu. 

Early  Hand-coloured  Print 

By  Kiyomasu. 

Courtesan  with  Servant 

UOUR    E^^^  ^^^^^^,^^3^      j^^^a  tinted.     Royal  Print  Room,  Dresden. 

Examples  of  "  Kake-mono-y^  " 

By  Narunobu. 

Full  Colour  Print 

By  Harunobu. 

Young  Girl  and  Willow  in  Wind 

By  Suzuki  Harunobu. 

Kakemono-ye 

By  Koriusai. 

Print 

By  Katsukawa  Shunsho. 

Four  Prints 

By  Kiyona^a. 

Four  Prints 

By  Kiyonaga. 

Colour  Print  "On  a  Balcony" 

By  Shunman. 

An  Elopement  Scene 

By  Utamaro.      Vever  Collection,  Pans.  I 

Mother  and  Child  . 

By  utamaro.      Vever  Collection,  Farts. 

The  Wave  „    . 

By  Hokusai.      Vever  Collection,  Pans. 

Fugi   in   Fine  Weather,   from  the  South 

By  Hokusai.     Koechlin  Collection,  Pans. 

Night  on  the  Kamo  River,  Kioto 

By  Hiroshige. 

Under  Sumida  Bridge 

By  HiroshigL 

Ghost  Foxes 

By  HiroshigL 


Plate 


Chapter    X. 

IDEALISTIC   ART   IN   CHINA. 

Northern  Sung. 

WE  return  now  to  the  Art  of  China  after  a  long  interval  in 
which  we  have  devoted  our  attention  solely  to  Japan, 
an  interval  which  should  enforce  upon  the  reader's  mind 
the  almost  complete  severance  of  the  two  cultures  during  the 
Middle  Ages.  In  China  too,  coming  back  after  this  interval,  we  plan 
to  enforce  attention  upon  the  great  spiritual  gap  involved  in  the  change 
from  what  I  have  called  mystical  art  to  what  I  now  call  Idealistic  art. 
For  this  significant  change — that  which  makes  the  epochs — is  no 
less  than  a  complete  transition  from  Tendai  Buddhism  to  Zen 
Buddhist  ;  not  a  sudden  transition,  for  the  two  were  always  running 
parallel  even  through  Tang,  but  a  definitive  transition.  Such  a 
transition  is  naturally  ignored  by  those  official  Chinese  historians  for 
whom  all  Buddhist  disputes  in  their  far  west  are  matters  of  small 
moment.  The  absolute  uniformity  of  Confucian  polity  from  Han  at  least 
down  to  the  year  of  the  writer  (1906)  seems  to  be  their  deceptive  bias. 
It  is  like  the  bias  of  Christian  sects  who  write  European  history  from 
the  point  of  view  of  their  own  pet  controversies.  This  revolution  in 
Chinese  feeling,  and  in  art,  was,  however,  as  great  a  one  as  if  our 
earth  should  roll  over  and  project  its  axis  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Panama,  thus  driving  all  remaining  cultures  to  build  their  sky-scrapers 
on  the  Antarctic  continent,  for  it  implied  no  less  a  change  in  Buddhist 
and  in  social  contemplation  than  the  substitution  of  the  natural  for  the 
supernatural.  If  I  call  it  Idealistic  contemplation,  it  is  because  it 
regards  nature  as  more  than  a  jumble  of  fortuitous  facts,  rather  as  a 
fine  storehouse  of  spiritual  laws.  It  thus  becomes  a  great  school  of 
poetic  interpretation. 


2         EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

It  may  be  objected  that,  In  Poetry,  the  school  lies  partly  in  Tang, 
and  I  should  have  to  admit  that  fact.  But  I  should  also  admit,  nay, 
assert,  that  it  lies  as  far  back  as  Southern  Liang  and  Sung  in  their 
Nanking  capital,  and  that  Toemmei  was  the  founder  of  it.  It  was  then 
that  the  Indian  Daruma  transplanted  the  germs  of  this  doctrine,  germs 
carefully  watered  by  the  Chinese  priest  Yeyan  and  his  composers  of 
the  White  Lotos  Club.  It  was  then  that  Taoism  joined  hands  with 
the  budding  Zen  to  enforce  individuality  as  opposed  to  Confucian  con- 
formity. All  this  was  detailed  at  some  length  in  Chapter  III.  When 
North  and  South  re-united  with  Tang  in  the  seventh  century,  some- 
thing of  this  Zen  spirit,  but  really  overweighted  with  Taoist  thought 
and  image,  came  to  unite  itself  temporarily  with  the  best  in  Confucian 
tradition.  The  union  is  best  exemplified  in  the  Genso  poetry  of 
Rihaku  and  Toshimi,  where  imagery  from  nature  is  used  to  enforce 
social  criticism.  The  pure  landscape  poetry  of  Tang,  like  Omakitsu's, 
is  much  more  Taoist  in  spirit  than  Zen.  The  admixture  of  Esoteric 
Buddhism  at  this  time  rather  turned  away  from  Zen  Buddhism.  If 
a  critic  could  have  analysed  the  tendencies  of  the  eighth  century,  he 
would  probably  have  enumerated  them  as  Confucianism,  Taoism,  and 
Tendaism.  Zen  was  a  real  thing,  only  it  did  not  blossom  into  full 
fruition,  and  take  the  whole  idealistic  field  for  itself  until  the  more 
self-conscious    days  of  Sung. 

The  striking  note  in  the  Zen  thought  of  Northern  Sung  is  its 
open  and  contemptuous  opposition  to  all  that  Confucians  hold  dear. 
Whether  this  union  of  extremes  was  in  730  a  real  union,  or  only  a 
patched  up  truce,  it  had  broken  away  into  self-conscious  conflict  by 
1060.  The  truth  is  that  the  narrow  sect  of  Confucianists,  the  moment 
that  they  were  to  become  self-conscious  puritans,  could  never  have 
tolerated  any  substantial  comparison  or  real  union  with  anybody.  They 
ure  a  set  of  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  who  hold  with  the  tenacity  of 
bull-dogs  to  the  letter  of  the  law.  We  have  seen  in  Chapter  VII. 
how  they  broke  out  into  bitter  persecutions  of  Buddhism  before  the 
end  of  Tang.  Tang  critics  themselves  were  hardly  able  to  analyse 
the  situation  ;  they  were  rather  open-mouthed  spectators  of  a  violence 
which  they  could  not  understand.  The  Confucian  element  in  early 
Tang  culture,  such  as  in  civil  service  examinations  and  university 
organization,  had  been  a  healthful  one.  People  could  hardly  judge 
whether  to  condemn  or  to  admire  its  partisanship. 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  3 

But  by  the  advent  of  the  Sung  dynasty  this  state  of  confusion  and 
doubt  had  blown  away.  During  the  fifty-five  years  of  the  five  short 
dynasties  intermediate  between  Tang  and  Sung  in  the  tenth  century,  a 
relative  kind  of  independence  had  igrown  up  in  the  severed  provinces, 
a  premium  set  upon  local  genius,  a  stage  of  decentralization  and  indivi- 
duality reached  which  just  gives  a  hint  of  the  sort  of  change  that  was 
later  to  transform  Japan  into  the  Kamakura  period.  And  when  the 
parts  came  together  again  with  the  opening  of  Sung  in  its  new  capital  of 
Kaifongfu  in  960  and  the  budding  geniuses  rushed  up  from  the  provinces 
to  add  their  lustre  to  the  new  court,  there  was  almost  immediately  a 
cleavage  of  parties  between  the  individualistic  and  the  anti-individualistic. 
It  was  the  former,  however,  that  at  first  clearly  prevailed,  and  that  is 
what  makes  the  art  of  early  Sung  so  brilliant,  even  that  which  helped 
make  possible  such  a  supreme  genius  as  Ririomin.  But  the  Confucians, 
tireless  as  usual,  insisted  upon  re-opening  the  same  sort  of  institutions 
that  had  been  current  under  Tang.  In  their  handling  of  the  educa- 
tional system  particularly  they  savagely  discouraged  all  attempts  to  feel 
newly  or  to  think  freely,  insisting  upon  the  rigid  morality  of  even  pre-Han 
conventionalities.  Liberal  methods  of  taxation  and  government  appoint- 
ment for  real  efficiency,  even  projected  institutions  for  the  benefit  of 
industry,  they  resented  as  an  infringement  of  their  prerogatives.  Some 
day  the  worked  out  history  of  all  this  is  going  to  furnish  us  with  the 
greatest  conflict  for  intellectual  freedom  that  the  world  has  seen,  a  con- 
flict too  many  of  whose  details  are  not  different  from  that  which  is 
accompanying  the  awakening  of  China  in  the  twentieth  century.  In 
early  Sung  keen  intelligence  had  driven  China  toward  scientific  method 
in  reasoning  and  in  industry  ;  she  was  on  the  verge  of  ante-dating 
European  invention  of  the  Renaissance.  But  the  check  upon  it  every- 
where was  subtle,  quiet  and  deadly.  It  lay  at  the  base  of  the  Chinese 
brain,  in  the  educational  system  itself. 

The  strong  minds  and  the  reformers  of  Northern  Sung  were  face 
to  face  with  a  supreme  tragedy,  and  they  knew  it.  The  degeneration 
of  Tang  was  a  symptom  of  what  was  about  to  stifle  the  vitality  of  all 
Chinese,  and  apparently  for  ever.  The  real  situation  is  seen  in  the 
tenuity  of  the  graphic  curve  which  I  have  given  in  Chapter  I., 
where  the  softening  of  the  Chinese  brain  and  a  kind  of  social  loco- 
motor ataxia  were  really  about  to  begin.  The  peculiar  civilization  of 
the    whole     Sung    dynasty.    Northern    and    Southern,    was   a    desperate 


4         EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

protest  against  the  insidious  disease,  the  only  clear  realization  of  its 
dangers  in  all  Chinese  history.  This  is  what  makes  the  Sung  dynasty 
a  kind  of  anathema  to  modern  Chinese  annalists,  that  is,  all  in  it  that 
is  not  pure  analytic  criticism.  The  creative  quality  of  the  Sung  mind 
they  positively  hate,  and  have  done  their  best  to  bury  under  the 
rubbish  of  misrepresentation.  Sung  art  is  only  known  to  the  moderns 
in  malformed  and  alleged  copies  which  utterly  travesty  it.  It  is 
almost  as  if  some  one  were  to  assert  the  mosques  of  Cairo  to  have 
been    built    by    Rameses. 

It  will  certainly  be  a  strange  thing  for  European  scholars  and  a 
public  who  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  Chinese  culture  as  a  dead 
sea  level  of  uniformity  for  three  thousand  years,  to  read  the  words 
of  men  who  wrote  hopefully  in  Northern  Sung  ;  such  words  as  those 
of  the  artist  critic  Kakki,  who  alleges  that  "  it  is  the  very  nature  of 
man  to  abhor  all  that  which  is  old  and  cleave  to  that  which  is  new." 
The  whole  round  of  Sung  culture  is  an  immense  storehouse  of  records 
that  show  Chinese  humanity  for  three  centuries  building  upon  every- 
thing which    we  are    disposed  to   disregard  as  un-Chinese. 

In  these  great  movements  of  Northern  Sung,  Zen  Buddhism  began 
to  play  a  conspicuous  part.  Neither  Taoist  nor  Tendai  mysticism 
appealed  to  the  university  scholars.  "  Back  to  nature "  was  the  cry, 
whether  of  incipient  scientists  or  of  pious  Buddhists.  How  Buddhism 
can  possibly  become  a  contemplation  of  nature  will  remain,  I  presume, 
a  mystery  to  those  Pali  scholars  who  suppose  there  never  can  have 
been  a  real  Buddhism  that  did  not  keep  maundering  on  about  "the 
five  noble  truths."  Metaphysical  Buddhism  was  already  dead  in  China, 
even  before  the  mystic.  Certainly  the  most  aesthetic  of  all  Buddhist 
creeds  is  this  gentle  Zen  doctrine,  which  holds  man  and  nature  to  be 
two  parallel  sets  of  characteristic  forms  between  which  perfect  sympathy 
prevails.  In  this  respect  it  is  not  unlike  the  Swedenborgian  doctrine 
of  "  correspondences."  But  it  goes  much  further  than  any  European 
has  ever  done  in  carrying  out  the  details  of  the  correspondence 
and  in  freeing  them  from  a  narrow  ethical  purism.  It  has  something 
of  the  openness  and  humanism  of  the  Renaissance,  without  its  some- 
what  empty   Paganism. 

An  extreme  principle  of  Zen  is  that  books  are  injurious,  especially 
in  the  educational  stage.  Therefore  it  discards  even  scripture  reading, 
and  cuts  itself  away  from    the  literature  of  its    order.      This  is  enough 


IDEALISTIC   ART    IN    CHINA  5 

to  condemn  it  with  Chinese  scholars,  who  regard  the  written  word  as 
a  sort  of  sacred  talisman.  Yet  it  was  partly  to  break  up  the  deadness 
of  this  very  conceit  that  turned  Zen  teachers  to  the  value  of  a  more 
vital  writing,  namely,  the  Book  of  Nature.  The  neophyte  was  to  see 
for  himself  how  animals  and  birds,  and  rivers  and  clouds,  and  mountains 
and  rocks  are  built  up  and  discharge  specific  functions.  It  is  an  attempt 
to  reconstruct  the  categories  of  thought  de  novo,  and  that  on  the  basis 
of  nature's  organization.  This  is  why  the  writer  Kakki  leaps  out  with 
the  first  words  of  his  joyous  preface,  "  Why  do  men  love  landscape  .'' 
Because  it  is  the  place  where  life  is  perpetually  springing  !"  Life, 
that  is  it  ;  not  a  Confucian  cupboard-full  of  dead  weights  and  meters, 
and  the  bones  of  social  orders,  ranged  rank  upon  rank,  and  ticketed 
in  analytical  order.  The  trouble  with  Confucius  is  that  he  had  acted 
as  if  the  skeleton  were  indeed  the  life.  He  was  probably  better  than 
his  practice,  and  took  narrow  ground  as  the  only  policy  to  convert 
the  feudal  spendthrifts  of  his  day.  Had  he  foreseen  that  he  was 
defining  an  Imperial  China  for  all  time,  we  may  well  believe  that  he 
would  have  propounded  freer  doctrine.  But  his  overzealous  disciples 
had  for  ages  intensified  his  defects  ;  and  now  they  were  openly 
clamouring  that  the  very  way  to  learn  how  to  live  was  not  by  watching 
the  heart  beat  and  the  lungs  expand,  but  to  count  the  number  of 
ribs.     Such  antithesis  was  one  ground   of  the   Zen  educational   policy. 

Another  great  point  of  the  Zen  scheme  was  that,  in  taking  for  his  book 
the  characteristic  forms  and  features  of  nature,  the  student  should  have  no 
guidance  but  his  own  unaided  intelligence.  The  wise  teacher  set  him 
down  before  rocks  and  clouds,  and  asked  him  what  he  saw.  The  priest 
was  examiner,  if  not  preceptor.  It  was  his  very  purpose  to  let  the  mind 
build  up  its  own  view  of  the  subtle  affinities  between  things  ;  to  construct 
an  organic  web  of  new  categories.  In  short,  education  must  develop 
individuality  !  This  is  why  the  great  portraits  of  the  Zen  priests — such  as 
that  of  the  Louvre,  which  is  described  in  the  last  chapter — are  so  powerful 
of  head  and  keen  of  eye.  For  individuality,  though  a  means,  is  really  not 
an  ultimate  end,  since  behind  the  way  of  approach  will  loom  something 
of  a  common  great  spiritual  system  underlying  both  man  and  nature.  In 
this  sense  it  is  a  sort  of  independent  discovery  of  Hegelian  categories  that 
lie  behind  the  two  worlds  of  object  and  subject.  Possibly,  the  telepathic 
power  of  the  teacher,  and  of  the  whole  Zen  enlightenment,  worked  through 
the  perceptions  of  the  neophyte,  to  bring  him  to  this  general  unity 
of  plan. 


6         EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

That  such  a  doctrine  should  become  a  powerful  adjunct  of  poetry, 
from  Shareiun,*  of  Liang,  to  So-Toba,  of  Sung,  is  due  to  its  keen  percep- 
tion of  analogies.  All  real  poetry  is  just  this  underground  perception 
of  organic  relation,  between  which  custom  classifies  as  different.  This 
principle  lies  at  the  very  root  of  the  enlargement  of  vocabulary  in  primitive 
languages.  Nature  was  so  plastic  and  transparent  to  the  eye  of  early  man, 
that  what  we  call  metaphor  flashed  upon  him  as  a  spiritual  identity  to  be 
embodied  at  once  in  language,  in  poetry  and  in  myth.  Zen  only  tried  to 
get  back  to  that  primitive  eclaircissement.  A  word,  like  a  thing,  means 
as  much  as  you  can  see  into  it,  and  therefore  lights  up  with  a  thousand 
chameleon-like  shadings,  which,  of  later  days,  only  the  poet  knows  how  to 
use  with  a  hint  of  the  original  colour.  So  in  Chinese  poetry  every 
character  has  at  least  two  shades  of  meaning,  its  natural  and  its  spiritual, 
or  the  image  and  its  metaphorical  range.  In  Chinese  poetry  we  find 
extreme  condensation,  for  every  word  is  packed  with  thought.  Hence, 
also,  the  parallelism  goes  on  to  couplets  or  stanzas,  contrasted  in  their 
apparent,  yet  alike  in  their  real  meanings. 

It  is  clear,  too,  that  such  a  doctrine  must  have  a  still  more  powerful 
influence  over  art.  When  Sung  went  to  nature  with  Zen,  it  prac- 
tically declared  for  landscape  painting,  a  form  that  before  had  been 
used  in  art  only  sporadically.  Sung  and  Tang  are,  par  excellence^ 
the  epochs  of  landscape  art,  not  only  in  China,  but  for  the 
world.  No  such  apotheosis  of  landscape  has  ever  been  vouchsafed  to 
the  West.  Even  in  landscape  poetry  we  ought  to  note  the  lateness 
as  well  as  the  thinness  of  the  stream  that  began  to  flow  with 
Wordsworth.  The  Wordsworths  of  China  lived  more  than  a  thousand 
years  ago,  and  the  idealistic  "  intimations "  to  which  the  English  bard 
somewhat  timidly  gave  a  platonic  form  only  hinted  at,  instead  of  un- 
folding a  system.  The  sounding  cataract  "  haunted  him  like  a  pas- 
sion," but  what  did  it  say  to  him  }  In  our  landscape  art  we  were 
long  satisfied  with  pretty  backgrounds  for  saints  ;  and  even  in  Dutch 
landscape  it  was  rather  the  peaceful  suburbs  of  cities,  or  the  rustic 
life  of  farms,  that  greets  us,  not  the  free  forms  of  nature  in  its 
violence  and  creative  motion.  The  truth  is  that  all  through  the  Middle 
Ages  the  dualistic  view  of  nature — wild  nature — was  essentially  evil  ; 
the  horror  of  grand  rocks  and  lonely  valleys,  the  hostility  of  matter 
to  the  heaven-directed  human  spirit,  delayed  European  perception  of 
beauty  in  mountains  and  storms  until  the  nineteenth  century.  This, 
*   In  Chinese  Hsich  Ling-yiin  and  Su  Tung-p'o. 


Lower  Portion  of  one  of  the  alleged  Godoshi  (\Vu  Tao-tzu) 
Landscapes,  kept  in  the  Temple  of  Daitokuji. 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  7 

too,  the  desire  of  man  to  surround  himself  with  formal  gardens,  as 
far  removed  as  possible  from  nature's  compositions.  And  even  yet, 
in  much  of  our  pretended  love  for  summer  rambles  and  seaside  out- 
ings, there  lingers,  I  fear,  a  sort  of  personal  pampering,  or  a  sort  of 
fetish  collection  of  facts,  rather  than  any  noble  passion  of  interpre- 
tation ;  rather  than  any  Zen-like  recognition  that  something  charac- 
teristic and  structural  in  every  organic  and  inorganic  form  is  friendly 
to  man,  and  responds  gladly  to  the  changing  moods  and  powers  of 
his  spirit.  When  Wordsworth  declares,  as  his  belief,  that  "  every  flower 
enjoys  the  air  it  breathes,"  he  humanizes  nature  a  little  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Zen  perception.  Say  in  every  new  stratification  or 
crystalline  structure  of  rocks  of  close  likeness  to  the  marks  and  pro- 
portion of  typical  character  in  the  faces  of  old  men.  To  compare 
children  with  flowers  is  obvious  enough  ;  but  to  make  every  visible 
form,  and  through  the  very  visual  peculiarities,  the  anti-type  of 
human  character  ;  to  make,  in  short,  nature  the  mirror  of  man — this  is 
completed  Zen  system  ;  this  gives  a  vast   vitality  to  landscape    art. 

To  pass,  now,  to  the  visible  history  of  this  landscape  art  we  must 
begin  with  the  little  that  is  left  us  of  Omakitsu's  (Wang  Wei)  and 
Godoshi's  (Wu  Tao  Tzu)  landscapes  from  middle  Tang.  The  So 
critics  continually  refer  to  these  as  the  origin.  Of  the  two,  Omakitsu's 
are  described  as  the  more  peaceful,  Godoshi's  as  rough  and  striking 
in  lines,  but  deficient  in  notan.  The  one  great  landscape  of  Omakitsu 
which  has  come  down  in  Japan  is  the  waterfall  among  rocks  of 
Kotaiji,  Higashi-yama.*  This,  however,  is  very  powerful.  The 
strange  scratchy  lines  that  cover  the  rocks,  like  strange  veinings  in 
marble,  are  quite  incalculable  in  their  pen  forms.  It  is  as  if  they  had 
been  drawn  with  a  bunch  of  sticks  and  leaves  for  brush.  This  style 
has  absolutely  no  relation  to  the  mushy  "bunjinga"  style  which  the 
late  Ming  and  early  Sei  pedants  tried  to  father  upon  him.  The  chief 
landscapes  of  Godoshi  are  the  two  on  silk  in  Daitokuji.  These  are 
splendid  and  worthy  of  his  reputation  ;  utterly  unique  in  composition, 
being  unlike  the  Sung  types  that  were  more  or  less  fixed  by  Risei 
and  Kakkei.  Mountains  rise  like  a  great  screen  over  the  whole  tall 
picture,  so  that  almost  no  sky  appears  in  the  grouping.  It  is  all 
mountain  gorge  filled  with  plunging  streams   and  cold  mists.      But  the 

*  This  splendid  landscape   now    at    Kotaiji    Higashi-yama    is    not    recognized    as    being 
undoubtedly  genuine  by  modern  Japanese  criticism. — M.  F. 


8         EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

utmost  splendour  of  drawing  has  been  thrown  into  the  trees  ;  the 
tall  pines  with  angles  and  twists  of  mighty  character,  as  strongly- 
worked  out  as  a  portrait.  The  depth  of  tone  varies  greatly  on  the 
nearer  and   the  farther   trees. 

Landscape  painting  was  not  very  widely  practised  throughout  Tang, 
which  ran  rather  to  human  and  religious  subjects.  But  in  the  very 
last  years  of  Tang  interest  in  Zen  revived,  and  led  to  such  men  as 
Taisu,  who  are  the  real  link  with  Sung.  Taisu  loved  to  paint  nature 
scenes  of  cow-herds,  riding  on  bullocks,  playing  flutes,  rejoicing  in 
the  cool  fans  of  waving  willows,  or  gazing  off  at  strong  mountain 
forms.  The  illustration  is  from  a  copy  of  Kano  Isen  (probably), 
in    the    Freer    collection. 

The  ante-room,  so  to  speak,  of  Sung  art  is  formed  by  the  five  short 
dynasties  that  intervene  between  it  and  Tang.  It  must  be  remembered 
that,  though  the  dynastic  recognition  of  these  follow  in  succession, 
the  truth  is  that  during  the  whole  fifty-five  years  China  was  broken  up 
into  many  provinces  that  remained  all  the  time  in  a  state  of  semi- 
independence.  The  father  of  landscape  art  in  the  North-East  was 
Keiko,  who  lived  as  far  back  as  Tang,  but  flourished  under  Liang 
(907-922).  His  landscape  was  free  and  broad,  with  striking  passages 
of  soft  notan.  Hankwan  (Fan  K^uan)  and  Kwando,  who  studied  under 
him,  became  the  great  landscape  painters  of  the  early  tenth  century. 
Of  Hankwan  it  was  said  that  "  his  landscape  seems  continuous  from 
where  the  spectator  sits."  He  probably  lived  far  into  Sung,  and  even 
enjoyed  the  influence  of  Risei  (Li  Ch'eng).  We  can  judge  this  whole 
transition  school  from  the  specimen  of  Hankwan  here  given.  It 
follows  Godoshi  in  its  tree-forms,  and  in  making  the  tones  of  the 
trunks  rather  thin  as  compared  to  the  dark  of  the  leaves.  It  was  this 
quality,  perhaps  exaggerated  in  Kwando,  which  led  the  Sung  critic, 
Beigensho  (Mi  Yuan-chang),  to  say  caustically  of  him,  "  His  trees  have 
branches  but  no  trunks."  Kwando's  work  was  "  rough  and  simple,"  i.e.y 
broad,  and  he  often  worked  in  vast  effects  of  mist  and  rain.  We  can 
probably  guess  what  the  critic  means  by  comparing  the  background  of 
this  little  Hankwan.  What  doubtless  gave  the  Tsing  pedants  a  cue  to 
carry  their  traditions  back  to  early  Sung  men,  was  such  a  method  as 
this  of  Hankwan's  in  drawing  distant  misty  cedars  with  a  broad  side- 
stroke.  This  is  what  is  technically  called  "  batsu-boku  "  by  even  the 
early  Sung  critics.     But   the    rocks    and    leaves    of   the    foreground    are 


Painting  by  the  Chinese  Artist  Taiso  (Tai  Sung) 
Copied  probably  by  Kano  Isen. 
Collection  cf  ^Nlr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  9 

sharp  and  real  and  utterly  unlike  the  modern  bunjinga,  which  smothers 
everything  near  and  far,  with  a  soft  buttery  mass  of  formless  batsu-boku. 

In  the  picturesque  neighbourhood  of  the  Yangtse,  in  the  province 
called  Southern  -Tang,  lived  one  of  the  greatest  geniuses  of  the  transition, 
Joki  (Ch'u  Hui),  painter  of  birds  and  flowers,  who  was  most  highly 
honoured  by  his  prince.  His  work  was  much  admired  in  the  capital  of 
early  Sung,  and  he  is  reckoned  the  great  father  of  Kwacho  (bird  and  flower 
compositions)  in  all  Chinese  art.  Several  examples  are  in  Japan.  We 
have  his  small  bird  on  the  branch  of  an  apple  tree,  done  in  full  colour. 
He  was  especially  successful  in  his  paintings  of  herons,  a  fine  example 
in  what  is  perhaps  a  Ming  copy  being  here  shown.  The  poise  of  the 
bird  on  one  foot  and  with  extended  wing  is  notably  fine.  He  liked  to 
use  a  coarse  silk,  so  that  Beigensho  remarked,  "Yo's  silk  is  like  cotton." 
Some  of  his  greatest  work  was  done  in  lotos,  no  doubt  much  like 
that  splendid  painting  of  growing  lotos  at  Horiuji,  which  long  tradition 
has  ascribed  to  his  Japanese  contemporary,  Kanawoka.  Two  most 
beautiful  paintings  of  lotos,  and  surely  of  his  design,  have  come  down 
to  us  in  copies  at  Horiuji.  Each  flower  is  outlined  and  tipped  with 
a  lovely  crimson.  The  foliage  leaves  are  malachite  and  blue-green, 
according  to  their  presentment  of  under  or  over  surfaces.  It  was 
such  work  that  became  a  model  for  Yuen  and  Min  artists  of  later 
eclectic  times. 

In  the  picturesque  West,  too,  Szechuan,  many  artists  arose  :  one  of 
whom,  Chosho  (Chao  CMang),  is  a  rival  to  Joki.  But  the  critic.  Risen, 
rightly  says  of  Chosho  that  his  flowers  are  merely  pretty,  "  looking  like 
embroidery."  Another  was  Kosen  (Huang  Ch'uan),  also  celebrated  for 
Kwacho.  The  fine  painting  of  a  peony,  in  Mr.  Freer's  collection,  is  probably 
a  copy  of  his  design  by  Shunkio  of  Yuen.  Thousands  of  purplish-pink 
tones  play  up  through  the  billowy  petals  of  this  peony.  He  called  himself 
Shesei,  that  is,  "  nature-copyist,"  and  loved  to  paint  detached  branches 
of  flowers. 

We  come  now  to  the  artists  of  Sung  proper.  One  of  the  first  acts 
of  the  founder  was  to  make  literary  men,  graduates  of  the  literary 
examinations,  provincial  governors.  This,  which  had  not  been  done 
under  Tang,  was  the  beginning  of  the  present  civil-service  abuses,  and 
doubtless  led  to  that  scholarly  arrogance  which  awakened  the  antagonism 
already  spoken  of.  But  it  also  led  to  a  greater  familiarity  with  the 
whole  empire,  governors  being  often  transferred  from  post  to  post,  and 


lo       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE    ART 

it  encouraged  a  universal  influence  of  landscape  art  as  a  record  of  local 
beauties  of  scenery.  This  the  poet  Toba  did  much  for  the  improve- 
ment of  that  Seiko  *  Lake  near  Hangchow,  which  later  became  China's 
greatest  Southern  capital.  It  also  led  to  a  wide  diffusion  of  critical 
scholarship,  and  it  led  to  the  quick  discovery  of  local  artistic  geniuses, 
who  were  quickly  introduced  at  the  capital. 

In  this  way  Risei  was  brought  up  from  the  Yeikeif  province  far 
down  the  Hoangho,  Risei  who  followed  much  the  style  already 
described  under  Hankwan.  "  The  trunks  of  his  trees  are  in  thin  ink, 
accented  with  large  spots."  He  was  fond  of  drinking,  and  composed 
some  of  his  finest  work  when  a  little  intoxicated.  He  cared  especially 
about  the  painting  of  tree  effects,  thick  forests,  blurred  in  smoke  and 
mist.  He  is  the  centre  of  the  early  Sung  landscape  style.  He  worked 
probably  between  980  and  1020  a.d.  He  had  greater  reputation 
among  the  early  Sung  Confucians  than  men  like  Kakki,  who  were 
doubtless  finer  artists.  Kokokumei,  one  of  his  pupils,  flourished 
after  Ninso's  accession,    1023. 

But  the  o;reat  outcome  of  all  this  preparatory  landscape  work,  from 
Taisu  and  Keiko  to  Hankwan  and  Risei,  was  Kakki  (Kuo  Hsi),  the  best 
pupil  of  Risei,  whom  he  surpassed.  He  was  a  native  of  Honan,  and 
so  loved  to  paint  its  broad  plains,  of  vast  extent,  soaked  and  softened 
with  varying  tints  of  stratified  mist.  He  is  the  greatest  painter  of 
distance  in  Chinese  art.  It  is  said  of  his  brush  strokes  that  they 
were  "  quaint,  and  full  of  implied  meanings."  By  this  we  understand 
great  power  of  suggestion  through  unusual  handling.  There  are  no  dark 
spottings  or  strong  contrasts,  but  wonderful  misty  impressions  of  rock, 
tree  and  roof.  "  He  is  most  famous  for  forests  in  winter,"  say  the 
bioo^raphers.  Here  the  deciduous  trees  stretch  gaunt  fingers  toward 
wide  plains  of  snow.  The  little  caravan  about  to  cross  the  bridge  sets 
the  vast  scale.  The  anchored  boat  beyond  is  disappearing  in  the  low 
valley  mists.  The  distant  hills  are  typical  of  quiet  Sung  drawing. 
It  is  said  of  Kakki  that  "  his  ink  looks  wet." 

Kakki's  great  work  was  done  on  the  wide  white  walls  of  temples  and  J 
palaces.       He  was  probably  the  first  to  use  pure  landscape  tor  solid  mural  ^ 
work.     We  read  of  his  enormous  pine  trees  many  feet  in  height  shooting  up 
against  broadsheets  of  mist,  and  hanging  over  deep  crevasses,  while  through 
the  branches  shine  glimpses  of  mountain  peaks  shrouded  in  clouds.     He  died 
•  In  Chinese  Ta-hu.  t   In  Chinese  Ghen-si. 


IDEALISTIC   ART    IN    CHINA  ii 

probably  in  the  Genko  period  (107 8- 1085)  from  which  his  latest  work — 
enormous  landscapes  on  silk — dates.  He  could  have  knowrt  Risei  only  in 
early  youth.  He  somewhat  overlapped  the  youth  of  Ririomin,  and  must 
have  been  one  of  the  dying  sages  who  moulded  the  thought  of  that 
transcendent  spirit.  It  is  on  record  that  Kakei,  the  greatest  landscapist  of 
Southern  Sung,  studied  Kakki  deeply,  and  often  copied  his  pictures. 

But  perhaps  the  greatest  service  Kakki  has  done  us,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  which  anyone  in  the  Chinese  world  could  do  for  the  whole 
world,  is  the  writing  of  his  great  Essay  on  Landscape,  which  he  says 
was  first  projected  as  a  set  of  precepts  for  his  son,  Jakkio.  In  fact, 
the  essay  was  edited  by  Jakkio  after  his  father's  death.  It  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say  that,  with  the  exception  of  some  relatively  dry  por- 
tions, it  is  one  of  the  greatest  essays  of  the  world.  It  does  more  to 
convince  us  that  an  enormous  change  had  come  over  the  face  of  the 
Chinese  world  than  all  the  Confucian  annals  put  together.  It  proves 
to  us  what  an  integral  part  landscape  had  come  to  play  in  Chinese 
culture  and  imagination  ;  and  it  shows  us  just  why  the  Zen  symbolism 
of  nature  gave  such  a  splendid  insight  into  characteristic  forms.  It 
is  indeed  true  that  the  utmost  dominance  of  Zen  had  not  yet  super- 
vened, and  that  it  is  the  landscape  essayists  of  Southern  Sung  who 
complete  Kakki's  picture.  It  is  true  that  Taoism  had  a  considerable 
part  to  play  in  nature-loving,  and  that  there  were  all  sorts  of  mix- 
tures in  men's  minds  between  Buddhism,  Taoism,  and  Confucianism, 
mixtures  which  were  destined  to  be  hardened  into  a  splendid  synthesis 
by  later  Sung  philosophers. 

I  propose  here  now  to  include  a  few  striking  extracts  from  this 
essay  as  the  best  account  which  can  be  given  of  Chinese  virtuosity 
and  insight  at  this  important  period.  It  shows  well  how  every  charac- 
teristic form  of  things  may  be  held  to  correspond  to  phases  of  the 
human  soul  ;  how,  for  instance,  the  wonderful  twisted  trees,  mighty 
mountain  pines  and  cedars,  loved  by  these  early  Chinese  and  later 
Japanese,  which  our  Western  superficial  view  first  ascribed  to  some 
barbarian  taste  for  monstrosities,  really  exhibit  the  deep  Zen  thinker 
in  their  great  knots  and  scaly  limbs  that  have  wrestled  with  storms 
and  frosts  and  earthquakes — an  almost  identical  process  through  which 
a  man's  life-struggles  with  enemies,  misfortunes,  and  pain  have  stamped 
themselves  into  the  wrinkles  and  the  strong  muscular  planes  of  his  fine 
old  face.     Thus  nature  becomes  a  vast  and  picturesque  world    for  the 

VOL.   II.  B 


12       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

profound  study  of  character  ;  and  this  fails  to  lead  to  didactic  over- 
weighting and  literary  conceit,  as  it  would  do  with  us,  because  character^ 
in  its  two  senses  of  human  individuality  and  nature  individuality,  are 
seen  to  become  one.  The  very  beauty  of  the  natural  side  counteracts 
any  latent  moral  formalism,  and  this  is  the  very  antithesis  to  the  later 
bunjinga — "literary  man's  art," — which,  indeed,  as  its  name  might 
imply,  swallows  up  beauty  in  pedantry.  The  pure  modern  Confucian 
recoils  with  horror  from  all  taint  of  Buddhist  thought  and  feeling,  and 
in  so  doing,  renounces  and  ignores  the  very  greatest  part  of  what 
makes  China  and  Chinese  art  great  in  the  great  Sung.  To  be  pure  as 
a  plum-blossom,  free  as  a  bird,  strong  as  a  pine,  yet  pliant  as  a 
willow,  was  the  lovely  ideal  of  the  Chinese  Sung  gentleman,  as  of 
the  later  Ashikaga  Japanese,  and  it  is  permeated  through  and  through 
with  Zen  thought.  It  might,  perhaps,  be  asserted  that  the  Japanese, 
or  my  own  enthusiasm,  had  invented  these  advanced  thoughts  (and  it 
has  been  so  said),  which  seem  to  have  nothing  in  common  with  what 
modern  Chinese  scholars  or  their  European  pupils  have  to  say  about 
China,  were  it  not  that,  fortunately,  we  have  this  great  essay  to  reinforce 
what  the    finer    Sung  pictures  tell  us. 

EXTRACTS   FROM   THE  FAMOUS  ESS  AT  BT  KAKKI 
(KUO   HSI)   ON  PAINTING* 

KAKKI  OF  SO  (KUO  HSI  OF  SUNG)  ON  THE  HIGH  TASTE 
OF  FOREST  AND  FOUNTAIN.  COLLECTED  BY  HIS  SON 
(FROM  FRAGMENTARY  NOTES)  LAICHI  LAIFU,  COM- 
MANDER-IN-CHIEF OF  INFANTRY,  KAKUSHI  JAKKIO 
(KUO    SZE). 

PREFACE. 

The  sage  said  : — "  It  is  well  to  aim  at  the  moral  principle  (Tao),  to 
derive  authority  in  everything  ft-om  virtue,  to  regulate  our  conduct  by 
benevolence,  and  to  let  the  mind  play  in  the  sphere  of  Art. 

*  Editor's  Note  : — The  following  extracts  are  taken  from  the  entire 
translation  made  many  years  ago  in  Japan  for  Professor  Fenollosa  by  Japanese 
scholars.  This  essay  has  always  been  kept  among  the  most  valued  papers  of 
the  writer  of  this  book,  and  has  been  by  him  frequently  quoted  and 
referred  to  in  lectures.  The  extracts  are,  for  the  most  part,  those 
paragraphs  and  isolated  sentences  which  have  been  marked  by  Professor 
Fenollosa.     Wherever  there  is  a  marginal  note  by  him  it  has  been  given. 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  13 

"I,  Kakku  Jakkio,  from  boyhood,  followed  my  revered  friend 
(meaning  his  father,  Kakki)  j  travelling  with  him  among  streams  and 
rocks,  and  every  time  he  painted  the  actual  scene,  he  said,  '  In  sansui 
(landscape)  painting  there  are  principles,  and  thoughts  that  cannot  be 
expressed  roughly  and  hurriedly.'  And  so  every  time  he  said  any  word 
to  be  remembered,  I  took  up  my  pen  and  recorded  it.  The  records 
having  now  amounted  to  several  hundreds  without  any  loss,  I  publish 
them  for  the  sake  of  those  who  love  the  art. 

"It  is  to  be  added  that  my  father,  while  young,  studied  under  a 
Taoist  master,  in  consequence  of  which  he  was  ever  inclined  to  throw  away 
what  is  old^  and  take  in  what  is  new*  He  was  thus  a  man  who  moved 
outside  the  regular  region  (meaning  the  Confucian  world  of  strict  and 
conventional  forms)  ;  and  there  having  been  no  painters  among  his 
ancestors,  what  was  in  him  was  derived  purely  through  intuition. 
During  the  whole  career  of  his  life,  he  wandered  about  in  the  sphere  of 
art,  and  thereby  acquired  its  fame.  In  his  private  character  he  was 
virtuous  in  conduct,  pious  to  parents,  benevolent  to  friends,  and  deeply 
so.  Thus  it  is  incumbent  upon  his  descendants  to  bring  these  things 
to  light."! 

A  little  later,  Jakkio,  in  explaining  some  terms  used  by  his  father, 
writes  again,  in  his  own  person,  thus  charmingly  : — 

"  Some  years  ago  I  saw  my  father  painting  one  or  two  pictures, 
which  he  left  unfinished  for  ten  or  twenty  days  at  a  time,  probably 
because  he  was  not  disposed  toward  them.  That  is  what  he  called  the 
idle  mind  of  a  painter.  Again,  when  he  was  much  disposed  towards  his 
painting,  he  forgot  everything  else.  But  even  if  a  single  thing  then 
disturbed  him  he  left  the  painting  unfinished,  and  would  not  look  at  it. 
Such  was  what  he  meant  by  a  dark  mind.  Whenever  he  began  to  paint 
he  opened  all  the  windows,  cleared  his  desk,  burned  incense  on  the  right 
and  left,  washed  his  hands,  and  cleansed  his  ink-stone ;  and  by  doing  so 
his  spirit  was  calmed  and  his  thought  composed.  Not  until  then  did 
he  begin  to  paint.J  To  sketch  out  the  picture  once,  and  then  try  to 
reconstruct  it,  to  increase  some  quality  or  portion,  and  then  to  wet  it 
again,  to  do  twice  what  could  have  been  once,  to  do  thrice  what  could 
have  been  twice,  to  trace  again  every  curve,  and  thus  be  always  trying 
to  improve,  but  finally  ending  in  dissatisfaction,  such  is  what  he  meant 
by  painting  with  a  proud  heart." 

-•'•  Editor's  Note  : — The    italics  are  Professor  Fenollosa's.     He  considered 
this  statement  important. 
t  End  of  Preface. 
X  The    writer's  marginal   note   against  this  is   the   one  word   "  Whistler." 

B  2 


14      EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

EXTRACTS     SUPPOSED     TO     BE     IN     THE     VERY     WORDS     OF     KAKKI. 

Wherein  do  the  reasons  lie  of  virtuous  men  so  loving  sansui 
(landscape)?  It  is  for  these  facts  :  that  a  landscape  is  a  place  where 
vegetation  is  nourished  on  high  and  low  ground,  where  springs  and 
rocks  play  about  like  children,  a  place  which  woodsmen  and  retiring 
scholars  usually  frequent,  where  monkeys  have  their  tribe,  and  storks 
fly  crying  aloud  their  joy  in  the  scene.  The  noisiness  of  the  dusty 
world,  and  the  locked-in-ness  of  human  habitations  are  what  human 
nature,  at  its  highest,  perpetually  hates ;  while,  on  the  contrary,  haze, 
mist  and  the  Sennin  sages  (meaning,  poetically,  the  old  spirits  that 
are  supposed  to  haunt  mountains)  are  what  human  nature  seeks,  and 
yet  can  but  rarely  see.  But  if  there  be  great  peace  and  flourishing 
days  in  which  the  minds,  both  of  the  ruler  and  subject,  are  high 
and  joyous,  and  in  which  it  is  possible  for  one  to  regulate  his 
conduct  with  purity,  righteousness  and  honesty  during  his  whole 
career;  then  what  need  or  motive  would  there  be  for  the  benevolent 
man  to  hold  aloof,  shun  the  world,  and  fly  from  the  common  place  ? 
Rather  would  he  join  the  people  in  the  general  jubilee.  But 
since  this  is  not  the  case  what  a  delightful  thing  it  is  for  lovers 
of  forests  and  fountains  and  the  friends  of  mist  and  haze,  to  have, 
at  hand,  a  landscape  painted  by  a  skilful  artist  !  To  have  therein 
the  opportunity  of  seeing  water  and  peaks,  of  hearing  the  cry  of 
monkeys,  and  the  song  of  birds,  without  going  from  the  room  ! 
In  this  way  a  thing,  though  done  by  another's  will,  completely 
satisfies  one's  own  mind.  This  is  the  fundamental  idea  of  the 
world-wide  respect  for  sansui  (landscape)  painting ;  so  that  if  the 
artist,  without  realizing  this  idea,  paints  sansui  with  a  careless 
heart,  it  is  like  throwing  earth  upon  a  deity,  or  casting  impurities 
into   the   clear   wind. 

In  painting  sansui  it  should  be  remembered  that  each  has  its 
own  form ;  so  that  if  a  sublime  picture  fills  the  whole  expanse  of 
a  large  silk  ground,  there  need  be  nothing  superfluous ;  or,  if  a 
small  scene  is  painted  on  a  small  ground,  there  need  be  nothing 
wanting.  The  critics  of  sansui  (landscape)  usually  give  to  the  scene 
represented  such  qualities  as  are  suitable  to  walk  in,  suitable  or 
pleasant  to  look  at,  suitable  to  ramble  in,  and  suitable  to  live  in. 
The  sansui  that  is  supreme  combines  the  four  qualities.  However, 
if  it  should  be  that  only  two  can  be  given,  then  that  which  is 
suitable  to  live  in  and  to  ramble  in  are  preferable. 

Man,  in  studying  painting,  is  under  the  same  condition  as  in 
studying  writing.  If,  as  in  writing,  one  makes  Sho-o,  or  Gurinku, 
his    master,    then,    at    most,   his    work  can    resemble  that    master    and 


Group  of  Rakan   (or  Arhats)  watching  Storks. 
School  of  Ririomin  (Li  Lung -mien). 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  15 

be  nothing  more.  So  also  is  it  in  painting.  A  great  thorough- 
going man  does  not  confine  himself  to  one  school ;  but  combines 
many  schools,  as  well  as  reads  and  listens  to  the  arguments  and 
thoughts  of  many  predecessors,  thereby  slowly  forming  a  style  of 
his  own  ;  and  then,  for  the  first  time  he  can  say  that  he  has 
become  an  artist.  But  nowadays  men  of  Sei  and  Ro  follow  such 
men  as  Yeikiu  only ;  and  men  of  Kwankio  follow  Hankwan  only. 
The  very  fact  of  following  one  master  only  is  a  thing  to  be 
discouraged  ;  added  to  which  is  the  fact  that  Sei,  Ro,  and  Kwankio 
are  confined  regions  and  not  the  whole  empire.  Specialists  have 
from  the  oldest  times  been  regarded  as  victims  of  a  disease,  and  as 
men  who  refuse  to  listen  to  what  others  say. 

He  that  wishes  to  study  flower-painting  should  put  one  blossoming 
plant  in  an  earthen  pot,  and  look  upon  it  from  above.  He  that 
studies  bamboo  painting  should  take  one  bamboo  branch,  and  cast 
its  shadow  on  a  moonlight  night  upon  a  white  wall. 


ON    CLOUD    PAINTING. 

The  aspect  of  clouds  in  sansui  is  difFerent  according  to  the  four 
seasons.  In  spring  they  are  mild  and  calm ;  in  summer  thick  and 
brooding  (melancholy)  ;  in  autumn  they  are  rare  and  thin,  in  winter 
dark  and  grey.  And  in  painting  clouds,  if  one  does  not  try  to 
carve  out  every  minute  detail,  but  will  paint  only  the  great  total 
aspect  of  the  thing,  then  the  forms  and  proportions  of  the  clouds 
will  live.  Among  clouds  there  are  returning-home  clouds.  There 
are  strong  winds  and  light  clouds ;  a  great  wind  has  the  force  of 
blowing  sand,  and  a  light  cloud  may  have  the  form  uf  a  thin  cloth 
stretched  out. 

ON    MOUNTAINS    AND    WATER. 

Mountains  make  water  their  blood :  grass  and  trees  their  hair ; 
mist  and  cloud  their  divine  colouring.  Water  makes  of  mountains  its 
face,  of  houses  and  fences  its  eyebrows  and  its  eyes,  and  of  fishermen 
its  soul.  Therefore  mountains  are  more  beautiful  by  having  water, 
bright  and  pleasant  by  having  houses  and  fences,  open  and  free  by 
having  fishermen.*     Such  are  the  combinations  of  mountains  and  water. 

A  mountain  is  a  mighty  thing,  hence  its  shape  ought  to  be  high  and 
steep,  freely  disposing  itself  like  a   man  at  ease,  or  standing  up   with 

*  Note  by  E.  F.  F. — Chinese  sages  often  became  fishermen.  The 
constant  allusions  to  them  in  such  essays  are  to  these  retired  scholars 
rather  than  to  actual  fishermen. 


1 6      EPOCHS   OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

grandeur,  or  crouching  down  like  a  farmer's  boy ;  or  as  having  a 
cover  over  it,  a  chariot  below  it,  seeming  as  if  it  had  some  support  in 
front  to  lean  over,  or  something  behind  to  lean  against,  or  as  gazing 
down  upon  something  below  j  such  are  some  of  the  great  form-aspects 
of  mountains. 

Water  is  a  living  thing,  hence  its  form  is  deep  and  quiet,  or  soft 
and  smooth,  or  broad  and  ocean-like,  or  thick  like  flesh,  or  circling 
like  wings,  or  jetting  and  slender,  rapid  and  violent  like  an  arrow, 
rich  as  a  fountain  flowing  afar,  making  water-falls,  weaving  mists  upon 
the  sky,  or  running  down  into  the  earth  where  fishermen  lie  at  ease. 
Grass  and  trees  on  the  river  banks  look  joyous,  and  are  like  beautiful 
ladies  under  veils  of  mists  and  cloud,  or  sometimes  bright  and  gleaming 
as  the  sun  shines  down  the  valley.     Such  are  the  living  aspects  of  water. 


MOUNTAINS. 

Mountains  are  some  high  and  some  low.  High  mountains  have 
the  blood-range  (an  old  Chinese  expression)  lower  down  ;  its  shoulder 
and  thigh  broad  and  expanded,  its  base  and  leg  vigorous  and  thick. 
Rugged  mountains,  round-backed  mountains  and  flattened  mountains 
together,  always  appear  forcible,  grasping  and  embracing  one  another 
with  their  bright,  continuous  girdle.  Such  are  the  forms  of  high 
mountains,  and  these  are  not  solitary.  Lower  mountains  have  their 
blood-circulation  higher  up,  with  short,  stunted  neck  and  broadened  base. 

If  a  mountain  has  no  mist  or  cloud,  it  is  like  spring-time  without 
flower  or  grass. 

Mountains  without  cloud  are  not  fine,  without  water  not  beautiful 
(the  word  beautiful  used  here  is  that  applied  generally  to  women), 
without  a  road  or  path  not  habitable  (or  suitable),  without  forests  not 
alive.  If  a  mountain  is  not  deep  and  far  it  is  shallow,  and  without 
being  flat  and  far  it  is  near,  and  without  being  high  and  far  it  is  low. 

In  mountains  there  are  three  sorts  of  distance,  that  of  looking  up 
to  the  top  from  below  is  height,  that  of  looking  toward  its  back 
from  its  front  is  called  depth,  and  that  of  looking  from  near  mountains 
at  distant  mountains  is  called  the  distance  of  Jiatness.  The  force  of 
the  distance  of  height  is  pushing  up ;  the  idea  of  the  distance  of 
depth  is  being  thick  and  folded;  the  idea  of  the  distance  of  flatness 
is   that  of  mildness  in  grandeur,  as  of  the  ocean.* 

*  Note  by  E.  F,  F. — The  term  for  foreground  here  means  that  part  of 
the  picture  which  is  just  in  front  of  the  eye,  and  which,  therefore,  is  to 
receive  the  main  attention  ;  not  the  whole  foreground  from  side  to  side. 
Thus,  the  other  parts  may  mean  not  only  the  upper  distance,  but  the 
space  at  the  sides,  and  also  at  the  bottom. — The  italics  are  by  E.  F.  F. 


One  of  the  Rakan  (in  Arhat). 

From  the  set  owned  by  Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 
By  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien). 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  17 

In  mountains  there  are  three  largenesses.  A  mountain  is  larger  than 
a  tree,  and  a  tree  is  larger  than  a  man.  A  mountain  at  a  certain 
distance,  but  not  farther,  becomes  in  size  like  a  tree ;  the  tree  at  that 
certain  distance  becomes  the  size  of  a  man.  Thus  the  mountain  and 
the  tree  are  not  large.  The  comparing  of  a  tree  with  man  begins 
with  its  leaves,  and  the  comparing  of  man  to  a  large  tree  begins  with 
the  head.  A  certain  number  of  tree  -  leaves  should  match  with  a 
man's  head,  and  the  man's  head  is  composed  of  a  certain  number 
of  leaves.  Thus  the  largeness  and  smallness  of  man,  tree  and  moun- 
tain, all  go  out  of  this  middle  ratio.  These  are  the  three  sorts  of 
largeness. 

A  mountain,  though  intended  to  be  tall,  cannot  be  tall  if  every  part 
of  it  is  shown.  It  can  be  tall  only  when  mist  and  haze  are  made  to 
circle  its  loins.  Water,  though  intended  to  be  distant,  can  be  distant 
only  through  visibility  and  invisibility  interrupting  its  course.  Nay,  a 
mountain  shown  in  all  parts  is  not  only  without  beauty,  but  is  awkward, 
like  the  picture  of  a  rice-mortar.  And  water  shown  in  every  part  is 
not  only  without  the  grace  of  distance,  but  resembles  a  picture  of  a 
serpent. 

Though  valleys,  mountains,  forests  and  trees  in  the  foreground 
of  a  picture  bend  and  curve  as  if  coming  forward,  as  if  to  add  to  the 
wonder  of  the  scene,  and  though  it  is  done  with  great  detail  it  will 
not  tire  the  beholder,  for  the  human  eye  has  the  power  to  grasp  all 
detail  that  is  near.  And,  in  other  parts,  though  they  have  flat 
and  far  expanse,  folded  peaks  that  are  continuous  like  ocean  waves 
receding  off  into  distance,  the  beholder  will  not  weary  of  the  distance, 
because  the  human  eye  is  capable  of  seeing  far  and  wide. 

ON    ROCKS. 

Rocks  are  the  bones  of  heaven  and  earth  j  and,  being  noble,  are 
hard  and  deep.  Dews  arid  water  are  the  blood  of  heaven  and  earth  j 
and  that  which  freely  flows  and  circulates  is  noble  blood.  .  ,  . 
Rocks  and  forests  (in  paintings)  should  pre-eminently  have  reason. 
One  big  pine  is  to  be  painted  first,  called  the  master  patriarch,  and 
then  miscellaneous  trees,  grass,  creepers,  pebbles  and  rocks,  as  subjects 
under  his  supervision,  as  a  wise  man  over  petty  men.  ...  If  a 
sandy  mountain  have  forests  that  are  thick  and  low,  the  rock  bearing 
mountain  must  have  them  lean  and  high.  .  .  .  Great  rocks  and 
pines  should  always  be  painted  beside  great  banks  or  tablelands,  and 
never  beside  shallow,  flat  water.  Some  water  runs  in  streams,  some 
roeks  are  level  at  the  top,  or  again,  waterfalls  fly  about  among 
tree-tops,  and  strangely  shaped  rocks  crouch  beside  the  path. 


1 8       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

THOUGHTS    ON    PAINTING. 

The  men  of  the  world  know  only  that  they  use  their  brush,  and 
therefore  they  paint ;  but  they  do  not  realize  that  painting  is  a  difficult 
thing  (with  the  meaning  that  it  lies  below  technique,  in  a  man's 
character).  A  true  artist  must  nourish  in  his  bosom  mildness,  kindness 
and  magnanimity;  also  he  should  possess  pleasant  thoughts  and  ideas, 
such  as  Ichokushi  called  "  oil-like  "  thoughts  ;  and  be  capable  of  under- 
standing and  reconstructing  in  his  own  mind  the  emotions  and  conditions 
of  other  human  beings,  both  in  pointedness  and  obliqueness,  and  in  the 
"  standing- side- by  -  side-ness  "  of  things.*  Having  accomplished  this 
understanding  of  others,  he  should  let  them  out  unconsciously  through 
the  tip  of  his  brush.  Kogaishi  of  Shin  (Ku  K'ai-chih  of  Tsin)  builded 
a  high-storied  pavilion  for  his  studio,  that  his  thought  might  be  more 
free.  Or  if  the  thought  becomes  depressed,  melancholy  and  clogged 
even  upon  a  single  point,  how  can  the  artists  be  able  to  manufacture 
from  such  thought,  or  to  feel  the  mental  characteristics  of  others  ?  .  .  . 
unless  I  dwell  in  a  quiet  house,  seat  myself  in  a  retired  room  with  the 
windows  open,  table  dusted,  incense  burning,  and  the  ten  thousand  trivial 
thoughts  crushed  out  and  sunk,  I  cannot  have  good  feeling  for  painting, 
or  beautiful  taste,  and  cannot  create  the  "  yu "  (the  mysterious  and 
wonderful).  After  having  arranged  all  things  about  me  in  their  proper 
order,  it  is  only  then  that  my  hand  and  mind  respond  to  one  another, 
and  move  about  with  perfect  freedom.  .  .  .  To  always  make  one  kind 
of  stroke,  is  to  have  no  stroke  at  all ;  and  to  use  but  one  kind  of  ink  is 
not  to  know  inking.  Thus,  though  the  brush  and  ink  are  the  simplest 
things  in  humanity,  yet  few  know  how  to  manage  them  with  freedom. 
...  It  is  said  of  Ogishi  (Wang  Hsi-chih)  that  he  was  fond  of  geese, 
his  idea  being  that  the  easy  and  graceful  bend  of  its  long  neck  was  like 
that  of  a  man  holding  a  brush,  with  free  motion  of  the  arm. 

With  regard  to  brushes,  many  kinds  may  be  used — pointed,  rounded, 
coarse,  delicate,  needle-like,  and  knife-like.  With  regard  to  inking, 
sometimes  light  ink  is  to  be  used,  sometimes  deep  and  dark,  sometimes 
burnt  ink,  sometimes  preserved  ink,  sometimes  receding  ink  (that  is 
drying  rapidly  from  the  ink-stone),  sometimes  ink  mixed  with  Ts'ing-lii 
(blue),  sometimes  dirty  ink  kept  in  the  closet.  Light  ink  retraced  six 
or  seven  times  over  will  make  deep  ink,  whose  colour  is  wet,  not  dead 
and  dry.  Dark  ink  and  burnt  ink  are  to  be  used  in  making  boundaries, 
tor  unless  it  is  dark  the  form  of  pines  and  rock  angles  will  not  be  clear. 
After  making  sharp  outlines,  they  are  to  be  retraced  with  blue  and  ink. 
Then  the  forms  will  seem  to  come  out  of  mist  and  dew.f 

*  This  is  evidently  a  literal  translation  of  some  telling  Chinese  phrase. 

t  Editor's  Note. — There  are  pages  of  such  technical  instruction,  but  it 
was  thought  best  not  to  add  more. 


Rakan  (or  Arhat)  in  Trance  upon  Water. 
School  of  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien). 


4 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  19 

ON    POETRY. 

Here  in  my  leisure  days  I  read  old  and  new  poems,  and  make 
extracts  of  such  good  stanzas  as  I  feel  to  be  completely  expressive  of  the 
soul.  The  ancient  sages  said  that  a  poem  is  a  painting  without  visible 
shape,  and  a  painting  is  poetry  put  into  form.  These  words  are  ever 
with  me.  I  will  now  record  some  of  these  verses  of  old  masters  that  I 
am  accustomed  to  sing. 

To  understand  the  whole  play  and  range  of  the  rich  life  that 
underlay  Northern  Sung  at  Kaifung-fu  at  this,  its  culminating,  period, 
we  must  go  beyond  this  strong  presentation  of  the  Zen  problem,  and 
touch  for  a  moment  on  some  of  the  other  phases  of  the  great  blood- 
less, tragic  struggle  which  had  the  fate  of  all  Chinese  culture  in  its 
issue.  If  we  could  get  a  concrete  picture  of  the  seething,  the  indi- 
vidualistic, the  idealistically  poetic  China  of  this  day,  say  from  1060 
to  1 1 26 — less  than  the  normal  life  of  a  man, — we  should  witness  the 
greatest  illumination  of  the  whole  East,  the  whole  Asiatic  world,  with 
but  two  exceptions — the  culminating  of  Tang  under  Genso,  at  Singanfu 
(713  to  755),  and  the  edaircissement  of  Southern  Sung  at  Hangchow 
(1172  to  1 186).  The  first,  of  Tang,  was  a  larger  movement  in  that 
it  was  on  an  international  scale,  Tang  being  in  close  relation  with 
half  of  Asia.  The  second,  of  Northern  Sung,  was  relatively  con- 
tracted and  the  most  purely  Chinese,  the  eclecticism  of  all  the  vital 
infusions  of  local  Chinese  spirit.  The  third  was  peculiarly  Southern 
Chinese,  and  still  more  contracted  in  scope,  the  whole  north  half  of 
China  being  held  by  hostile  Tartars.  Another  interesting  difference 
between  the  first  two  is  that  Tang  culture  probably  found  its  supreme 
expression  in  poetry,  while  the  Sung  culture  found  Its  supreme  ex- 
pression in  pictorial  art.  Without  the  one  unrivalled  genius  of 
Godoshi,  Tang  art  could  hardly  compare  with  Sung — surely  not  in 
scope,  variety,  and  taste.  In  strength  and  spontaneity,  perhaps,  even 
as  a  mass,  it  stood  higher.  Accordingly,  as  one  takes  one  point  of 
view  or  the  other,  Godoshi  ranks  Rlriomin  or  Rlriomin  Godoshi.  It 
is  quite  a  maintainable  thesis  that,  though  in  all  the  elements  of  civili- 
zation taken  together  the  Tang  reaches  the  acme,  in  pictorial  art  alone 
the  Sung  reaches  it.  Some  day  a  true  account  of  the  pitting  of  the 
enormous  party  forces  of  Kal-fung-fu  against  each  other  will  make  one 
of  the    most  romantic  episodes  in   literature. 

Just  a  sketch  of  this  wide  movement  must  here  be  included.     That 


20      EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

the  Confucians  who  had  captured  Tang  at  its  close,  were  bound  to  make  a 
supreme  effort  to  Sung  at  its  beginning  is  shown  in  the  following 
events.  They  influenced  the  Emperor  to  appoint  them  as  local  governors 
in  963.  They  made  the  nine  Confucian  classics  the  chief  curriculum  in 
provincial  schools  (looi),  and  in  what  were  now  civil  service  examinations. 
They  had  a  lofty  title  given  to  Confucius,  "  Bunsen,  or  Wen-chen,  King 
of  Letters,"  as  if  he  were  the  source  of  all  Chinese  intellect  (1008.) 

Yet  a  strongly  counteracting  force  was  at  hand.  In  984  Kwazan 
Inshi,*  a  Taoist  hermit,  came  to  the  court,  and  insisted  upon  residing 
and  preaching  there.  He  undertook  even  to  work  miracles,  and  won 
the  attention  of  the  Emperor.  In  10 12  a  second  imported  Taoist  came. 
These  men  were  supposed  to  be  sennin^  that  is,  men  in  the  flesh,  who, 
by  pure  communication  with  nature,  and  subordination  of  personality, 
had  won  a  kind  of  power  over  things,  and  might  even  circumvent 
death.  It  is  clear  how  such  a  doctrine  might  fall  into  close  harmony 
with  Buddhism,  particularly  Zen.  Both  went  to  nature  for  their 
inspiration.  It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  many  of  the  most 
influential  courtiers  had  come  from  southern  and  western  provinces, 
which  had  been  more  closely  under  Buddhist  tradition,  the  South  being 
the  very  scene  of  Daruma's  life,  and  a  centre  of  Zen  dispersion.  In  1023 
the  Emperor  Ninso  came  to  the  throne,  destined  to  a  long  reign  of  forty- 
one  years.  That  he  was  reputed  by  his  own  non-Confucian  courtiers  to  be 
a  sennin,  shows  what  a  hold  the  Taoist  doctrine,  in  its  semi-Zen  form,  had 
already  acquired  at  the  capital.  With  the  Emperor  now,  not  only  a 
Taoist,  but  a  living  'Taoisi  God^  the  Confucian  party  was  put  to  straits. 
This  reign  of  Ninso  became  the  great  preliminary  battle-ground  of  the 
forces  which  were  trying  to  free  or  fetter  the  Chinese  intellect  for  ever. 
Kakki's  father,  to  whom  he  refers  in  his  preface,  was  a  man  of  this  day, 
and  Kakki  was  brought  up  in  the  midst  of  the  controversy. 

But  the  Confucian  party  had  a  great  leader,  Oyoshi,  a  refined  and 
able  scholar,  statesman  and  writer,  who  sought  by  peaceful  and 
philosophical  means  to  convince  the  nation  that  its  hope  lay  in  a 
stern  and  ceremony-restricted  life,  that  free  personality  carried  in  its 
heart  a  mighty  danger.  It  was  the  same  sort  of  a  position  that  the 
Sophists  took  against  Socrates,  the  same  campaign  waged  in  the  last 
century  against  Emerson.  Toward  the  end  of  Genso's  reign,  a  much 
younger     man,     Oanseki,     arose     to     take     official     leadership     of     the 

*  In  Chinese,  Ch'en  F'uan. 


Sleeping  Hotel     By  Ririomin 
(Li  Lung-mien). 


The  Famous  Yuima  or  Vimalakirti  (Copv). 
By  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien). 


I 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  21 

individualistic  party.  It  was  not  enough  to  ignore  the  scholars  in  private 
practice  ;  they  already  had  in  their  hands  the  machinery  of  education,  pro- 
vincial government,  taxation.  Most  of  all,  the  effect  of  the  century-long 
conformity  was  in  danger  of  producing  a  deadening  in  the  Chinese  intellect. 
Chinese  industry  and  warfare  were  both  backward,  because  not  based 
on  a  study  of  nature.  It  was  necessary  to  show  that  scholarship  was  not 
confined  to  pedants,  necessary  to  snatch  its  very  elements,  by  organized 
opposition,  away  from  the  Confucian  danger.     The  battle  was  on. 

Oanseki  (Wang  An-shih)  was  one  of  those  extraordinary  men  who, 
like  Roger  Bacon,  reach  a  clear  insight  of  truth  hundreds  of  years 
ahead  of  time,  at  a  day  when  such  radicalism  means  extreme  mis- 
understanding and  danger.  He  has,  of  course,  been  denounced  by  all 
subsequent  historians  as  the  arch  traitor  to  Chinese  ideas  ;  yet  he  was 
the  first  great  Chinese  rationalist  of  a  universal,  a  European,  a  Non- 
Confucian,  type.  He  clearly  distinguished  between  that  part  of  the 
knowledge  of  his  day  which  was  science,  from  what  was  not.  He 
was  no  special  partisan  of  either  Tao  or  Zen,  though  ready  to  utilise 
their  support.  His  base  was  reason  and  observation  ;  he  regarded 
formalism  as  a  far  more  insidious  danger  than  even  superstition.  If 
he  were  living  at  the  present  day  (1906)*  how  eagerly  he  would  be 
seeking  the  good  in  Western  influence  !  Such  a  reformer  as  Kang 
Yii-wei,  who  had  the  ear  of  the  young  Emperor  in  1898 — just  before 
the  coup  d'etat  would  have  been  regarded  as  a  new  Oanseki,  had 
he  really  possessed  Oanseki's  scholarship  and  breadth  of  mind.  Former 
minister  Wu,  now  high  in  court  circles,  is  a  sort  of  young  Oanseki  ; 
but  the  breadth  of  his  grasp  is  now  unfortunately  scattered  through 
the  brains  of  a  thousand  only  half  effective  scholars.  Of  course  it  is 
a  harder  test  than  Oanseki's  to  construct  a  working  synthesis  of  the 
best  in  Chinese  '  and  European  ideas  ;  and  seven  hundred  added  years 
of  hard-baked  Confucianism  makes  a  denser  opposition.  The  Empress 
Dowager  proscribed  Kang  Yii-wei  in  1898,  and  cut  off  the  heads 
of  his  colleagues.  To  the  credit  of  the  Sung  Confucians  be  it  said 
that  no    one    advocated  the    assassination    of  Oanseki. 

Four  years  before  Ninso's  death  he  came  to  the  point  of  sum- 
moning Oanseki  as  chief  adviser,  and  to  draft  a  working  scheme  for 
reconstructing    the    civil    service.     While    this    was    only    a    scheme,    the 

*  Note. — It  was  during  the  summer  of  1906  that  the  entire  draft  of  these  two  volumes 
was  hastily  written. — The  Ed. 


22      EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

Sennin  Emperor  died  ;  and  the  hopes  of  the  Confucians,  under 
Oyoshi  and  Shiba  the  historian,  arose.  Yeiso,  however,  was  occupied 
with  internal  wars,  in  which  matters  the  scholars  had  never  shone  as 
brilliant  advisers.  Did  not  Confucius  deprecate  all  war  and  violence  .'' 
Here  was  one  of  the  weak  points  in  the  armour  of  the  literati;  when 
things  went  wrong,  and  work  was  to  be  done,  they  folded  their  hands 
and  advocated  but  the  one  abstract  remedy  "virtue."  Oanseki  saw  that 
they  in    time    would    become  the    screen    for    a    gigantic    hypocrisy. 

But  in  four  years  more  a  new  Emperor  Shinso  was  on  the  scene  ; 
and  Oanseki  was  given  carte  blanche  to  promulgate  his  new  laws  in 
the  great  year  1069.  Oanseki's  power  lasted,  with  the  exception  of 
brief  intervals,  to  his  death  in  1086.  It  is  just  this  critical  period, 
Kirei,  from  1068  to  1078,  that  witnessed  the  brunt  of  the  conflict. 
Oanseki's  reform  included  a  return  to  something  like  the  Tang  system 
of  taxation,  a  fair  rental  for  land,  not  to  be  left  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  governors  but  administered  by  a  vigorous  central  bureau.  But  his 
greatest  innovation  was,  not  to  abolish  the  school  system  and  the 
examinations,  but  to  purify  them  by  throwing  out  the  Confucian 
classics  altogether.  Think  of  a  great  Chinese  minister  daring  to  propose 
and  to  do  this.  But  Oanseki  found  himself  with  the  much  more 
difficult  task  of  construction  than  of  destruction.  What  could  be  sub- 
stituted as  a  basis  of  education  ?  He  made  a  splendid  effort  to  try  to 
formulate  the  learning  of  his  time  upon  a  practical  basis.  He  insisted 
that  ofl^icials  must  be  taught  the  elements  of  their  trade.  He  introduced 
studies  in  economy,  taxation,  book-keeping,  law,  and  the  routine  of 
administration  morals.  But  Oanseki  was  a  scholar  also,  a  fine  prose 
writer,  and  no  mean  poet ;  and  so  he  undertook  to  compose  for 
himself  a  whole  new  series  of  text-books  that  should  in  some  sense 
supply  the  place  of  the  deposed  classics.  It  will  be  a  great  study 
for  some  future  humanitarian  scholar  to  translate  and  analyse  the 
writings    of  this   great  publicist. 

In  1074  Oanseki  was  temporarily  deposed.  Oyoshi,  his  most 
bitter  enemy,  a  Confucian  leader  for  nearly  forty  years,  had  died  two 
years  before.  Shiba  Onko,*  the  historian,  now  became  his  successor, 
but  with  less  force.  Shiba  presented  his  great  history  of  China  to 
the  Emperor  in  1084,  a  work  written  with  the  purpose  of  proving  that 
national  health  had  always  rested  upon  ethics  and  ritual.  In  1086 
*  In  Chinese  Ssii-ma  Kuang. 


^  Cfer 


The  Painting  by  Kikiomin  (Li  Lung-mie: 
OF  HIS  OWN  Villa,  "  Riomix-zan." 


i 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  23 

both  Oanseki  and  Shiba  died;  a  new  Emperor,  Tesso,*  came  in;  and, 
weary  with  disputes,  the  new  administration  ordered  a  truce  between 
the  parties,  which  practically  resulted  in  the  sliding  back  into  their  old 
places  of  the  literati.  Even  so,  the  whole  Sung  dynasty  never  quite 
lost  the  lesson  of  freedom  ;  the  Confucians  kept  their  ambitions  in  the 
background  ;  and  the  great  individuals  of  the  dynasty,  including  the 
Zen  priests    and  the  artists,    lived    their  great   lives  out  in  peace. 

It  was  in  the  very  midst  of  this  great  intellectual  ovation  that  Kakki 
died,  and  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien)  arose  into  prominence.  We  can 
see  from  Kakki's  essay  what  the  new  free  spirit  was  like,  how  it 
instinctively  turned  toward  a  poetic  idealization  of  nature.  The  great 
Confucian  poets,  too,  such  as  So-toba,  could  not  help  taking  an  in- 
terest in  this  movement,  and  themselves  becoming  painters.  It  was  a 
wonderful  grouping  of  men  that  met  each  other  at  the  Emperor's  recep- 
tions, or  in  the  humbler  haunts  of  scholarship — on  the  Confucian  side, 
Oyoshi  the  minister,  Shiba  the  historian,  Bunyoka  the  prose-writer, 
Toba  the  poet,  and  Beigensho  the  critic  :  on  the  liberal  side,  Oanseki 
the  reformer,  Kakki  the  essayist,  Ririomin  the  artist,  and  the  young 
prince  Cho  Kitsu,  who  was  later  to  become  the  great  aesthetic  emperor 
Kiso  Kotei. 

The  place  of  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien)  in  this  double  grouping  is 
probably  the  most  interesting  of  all,  since  he  is  one  of  the  world's 
greatest  geniuses.  We  have  already  seen  how  prominent  he  was  in 
the  painting  of  Buddhist  images  and  the  miracles  of  the  Rakan.  In 
his  later  years  he  became  a  firm  believer  in  the  doctrines  of  Shaka 
(Buddha)  and  lived  a  life  of  pious  insight  in  his  villa  "  Ririomin-zan."  t 
It  is  interesting  to  see  how  such  great  friends  as  the  Confucian  poet 
Toba,  and  Ririomin,  could  live  together,  tolerate  and  even  sympathise 
with  each  other's  ideals,  and  yet  in  fact  be  strong  partisans  of 
principles  as  far  apart  as  the  poles.  Ririomin  had  taken  his  final 
examinations  during  Kinen,:|;the  very  period  in  which  Oanseki's  new 
laws  and  standards  were  in  force.  We  may  infer  that  he  readily 
adapted  himself  to  the  new  texts,  and  breathed  in  a  special  freedom 
unknown  to  all  other  Chinese  painter-scholars.  In  1076  he  tells  us 
himself  that  he  bought  the  villa  at  Ririomin-zan  as  a  place  for  future 
retirement,  yet    for  twenty-four    years   after  this   he  served   faithfully    at 

*  In  Chinese  "  Cheh  Tsung." 

t  This  name,  Ririomin-zan,  means  *'  Mountain  of  the  Dragon's  brightness." 

X  In  Chinese  "  Hi-ning." 


24      EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

court  as  reader  and  censor  of  new  books,  and  later  as  court  historian. 
He  was  calm  and  undogmatic  in  temper,  beloved  and  respected  by- 
men  of  all  parties,  yet  holding  his  own  comprehensive  position  with 
an  easy  air  of  freedom.  No  doubt  he  made  his  own  personal  combi- 
nation of  Confucianism,  Taoism,  mystical  Buddhism,  Zen  Buddhism,  and 
Oanseki's  scientific  rationalism.  He  was  a  poet,  well-known  in  his  day 
as  Michael  Angelo  was.  He  loved,  even  during  his  period  of  service,  to 
take  walks  into  the  country  and  brood  over  the  beauty  of  scenery.  Toba 
sometimes  accompanied  him,  and  has  left  records  of  their  experiences. 
He  was  also  a  master  of  prose,  and  had  a  fine  hand  at  written  characters. 
He  was  regarded  by  his  more  formal  friends  as  a  good  -  humoured 
eccentric  ;  one  of  his  friends  openly  regretting  that  he  did  not  put 
more  "  moral  purpose "  into  his  pictures.  "  But  he  was  a  lover  of 
Tao  !  "  the  critic  sighed.  It  was  quite  Confucian  to  condemn  pictorial 
beauty  as  such  for  triviality.  Hence  the  first  Bunjinga  absence  of 
beauty.  He  was  a  connoisseur  and  collector,  and  also  made  drawings  for 
books.     He  is  perhaps  the  most  "  all-round "  man  in  Chinese  history. 

Yet,  as  in  the  case  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  it  is  as  an  artist  that 
the  world  best  preserves  his  fame.  I  intend  to  say  no  more  here  of 
his  supremacy  as  a  Buddhist  painter.  It  is  rather  as  a  painter  of 
secular  subjects  that  we  here  want  to  think  of  him,  and  a  man  of 
the  same  line  and  tendency  with  Risei  and  Kakki  before  him,  with 
Rito  his  contemporary,  and  with  Kiso,  Riteiki  and  Rianchu  after 
him.  Ririomin  spent  his  youth  in  a  part  of  the  country  where 
horses  were  bred,  and  especially  loved  their  freedom  of  wild  motion. 
So  that  his  earliest  predilection  was  for  the  painting  of  horses.  In 
this  narrow  line  some  critics  have  ranked  him  above  the  great  Tang 
horse-painter,  Kankan.  But  it  was  also  in  the  fine  attitudes  of  the 
riders  of  the  horses  that  Ririomin  excelled.  A  good  example  has 
come  down  to  us  in  a  copy  by  the  Japanese  Okio  ;  we  do  not  know 
whether  the  original  still  exists.  Here  the  same  supreme  imagination 
for  line  freedom  in  drapery,  which  his  Buddhist  work  displayed,  is 
conspicuous.  The  synthesis  of  the  man  turning  with  the  Tartar  behind 
him  is  specially  fine.  Again  and  again  the  comments  of  writers  upon 
his  pictures  refer  to  his  likeness  to  Kogaishi.  The  same  thing  was 
said  during  Tang  of  the  pictures  by  Godoshi.  We  can  see  well  what 
the  sort  of  force  is  that  is  common  to  Ririomin  and  Godoshi.  "  The 
force  of  Kogaishi"  is  the  very  phrase  used. 


Drawing — Head  of  a  Chinese  Lady. 
By  Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien). 
Owned  by  Mrs.  H.  O.  Havemeyer,  of  New  York. 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  25 

Apart  from  his  altar-pieces  Ririomin  was  fond  of  using  paper  rather 
than  silk  for  his  grounds,  and  of  painting  in  ink  only.  Yet  his 
colour  in  Buddhist  pieces  is  praised  as  "divine,"  and  in  landscape  his 
style  is  compared  to  the  general  Rishikin's  of  Tang,  which  was  a 
coloured  style.  It  is  therefore  an  ignorant  assertion  of  one  scholar 
that  Ririomin  used  colour  only  when  he  copied.  This  was  perhaps 
a  pious  attempt  to  reclaim  Ririomin  as  a  scholar  in  good  standing,  by 
insinuating  that  his  great  Buddhist  work  was  merely  copying.  It  is 
true  that  he  specially  loved  to  copy  the  great  accessible  works  of 
earlier  masters,  and  it  is  declared  in  his  biography  that  he  so  loved  to 
copy  Kogaishi,  Chosoyo  and  Godoshi,  his  splendid  bias  for  line  being 
surely  here  derived.  He  loved  to  paint  the  Ubasoku  Yuima  visited 
by  Ananda,  a  subject  which  we  may  remember  was  created  by 
Kogaishi.  Kogaishi's  Yuima  was  one  of  his  few  pictures  that  was 
known  to  exist  as  late  as  Sung.  It  is  a  fair  inference  that  Ririomin 's 
Yuima  was  more  or  less  based  upon  the  ancient  model.  In  the  Yuima 
of  Ririomin,  of  which  we  present  a  copy,  the  work  is  entirely  done  in 
ink  line,  and  has  an  archaic  flavour.  The  princess  figure  of  a  young 
girl  attendant  is  like  a  Buddhist  statue.  There  is  relationship  between 
this  line,  and  the  single  figure  of  Kogaishi  given  in  the  Kinsekiso, 
On  the  other  hand  the  line  is  inferior  to  Ririomin,  less  sure  of  itself 
and  consistent.  Another  work  of  Ririomin's  upon  paper,  this  time 
Taoist  and  slightly  coloured,  is  of  a  fine  fat  Hotei  sleeping.  This  is 
far  superior  to  the  Hoteis  of  Sesshu  and  Motonobu,  much  less 
abstract  in  line  and  modelling.  I  have  also  seen  Ririomin's  portrait 
of  the  poet  Rihaku  overcome  by  drink,  of  his  Daruma,  and  of  his 
standing  white  Kwannon.  I  will  not  attempt  to  refer  here  to  the 
elaborate  descriptions  of  some  of  his  famous  paintings  which  Chinese 
critics  have  left  us,  only  to  say  that  we  can  understand  the  force  of 
his  crowded  compositions  of  figures  by  studying  the  early  Kano  copy 
of  his  fight  among  the  blind  musicians.  This  too  shows  that  he  was 
not  lacking  in  humour  ;  but  the  mingled  humour  and  pathos  of  the 
scene  where  the  sightless  antagonists  beat  the  air  and  smash  heads  with 
their  "  biwa  "  is  swallowed  up  in  the  magnificent  passages  of  the  lines. 
Ririomin,  as  a  landscapist,  seems  rather  to  have  gone  back  to  Tang, 
than  merely  yielded  to  the  new  Kakki  style.  He  could  paint  minutely 
and  with  rich  colour.  The  studies  that  he  made  of  his  own  Ririomin-zan 
were  long  famous.     Only  one    piece    is    known    in    Japan,    namely,    the 


26      EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

bamboo  grove  at  the  back  gate  of  his  villa,  where  stone  steps  lead 
down  to  the  river.  Here  there  is  slight  tinting  of  colour,  and  the 
style  is  not  so  different  from  what  is  soon  to  follow  of  the  Senkwa 
age,  Kiso  himself  the  Chos,  and  the  ancestors  of  Bayen.  There  is  a 
naive  charm  about  its  composition,  however,  which  is  quite  unique.  It 
is  so  quiet  and  homely.  We  can  feel  every  detail  of  flower,  grove, 
walk,  and  ornamental  stone,  even  the  wild  white  peach  blooming  amid 
the  dark  bamboo.  The  bamboo  grove  on  the  farther  bank  of  the 
stream  is  thinner,  and  toned  down  into  mist. 

Another  thing  that  shows  Ririomin's  fine  feeling  for  rusticity  and 
quiet  life  is  his  love  for  the  ancient  poet  Toemmei.  He  often  painted 
Toemmei.  He  definitely  retired  from  public  life  in  the  year  iioo,  the 
very  year  before  the  accession  of  his  young  friend,  the  prince  Cho 
Katsu.  Though  Kiso  Kotei  could  not  have  Ririomin's  direct  influence 
at  his  own  academy,  it  was  reflected  through  himself,  and  doubtless 
pictures  found  their  way  up  to  the  court  from   Ririomin-zan. 

But  a  last  interesting  feature  of    Ririomin's    thought  and  work    that 
we  must  mention,  is    his    supreme    respect  for    the    great    and    domestic 
virtues  in  women.     It  was  one   of  his  favourite  subjects  to  paint  in  all 
the  splendour  of  their    rich    beauty   and   moral    nature   the    great    ladies 
that  he  had  known    at    court,    and   the    noblest    wives    and    mothers    of 
Chinese  biography.     This  is  reckoned  by  his  contemporaries    as    one  of 
his  finest  traits.     Fortunately  one  most  beautiful  specimen  in    thin   ink 
on  paper  has  come  down  to  us.     It  is  a  lady,  evidently  of  youth  and  delicate 
nature,  whose  luxuriant  hair  is  caught  back  into  three  heavy  coils  by  a  single 
rough  wooden  hairpin.     Her  garment  is  a  single  robe  wrapped  round  her  j 
slender  body.     This  must  either  represent  some  famous  noble  lady  living  j 
in  lofty  calm  though  reduced  to  penury,  or  more  probably  a  widow  who  i 
has  dedicated  her  gentle  life  to  her  husband's  memory.     In  any  case  the  ' 
face    is    extraordinarily    sweet,    high-bred,   and    beautiful,  and  well  worth  | 
comparing  with  Raphael's  sweetest  Italian  types  of  mother.     It  shows  how  i 
such  a  great  Chinese  as  Ririomin  appreciated  "  the  eternal  feminine." 

We  do  not  know  the  year  in  which  this  admirable  spirit  passed 
to  its    Nirvana. 

Of  Ririomin's  contemporaries,  the  men  about  whom  the  biographers 
make  most  fuss  are  the  scholars,  Bunyoka,  Toba,  and  Beigensho  ;  but 
we  can  read  between  the  lines  that  the  high  praise  given  their  art 
is    rather  reflected    from  the  fame    of  their  literary  achievements.     The 


I 'lack  Bamboo,     Bv  Bunvoka. 


Painting  by  Kiso  Kotei  (Hui-Tsung'i. 
Daitokuji. 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  27 

truth  is  that  they  were  rather  narrow  and  amateurish  at  painting  ; 
though  Beigensho  was,  as  we  have  seen,  something  of  a  caustic  critic, 
Bunyoka  was  celebrated  chiefly  for  his  "  black  bamboo,"  and  Toba  the 
same.  From  the  example  here  given  we  can  see  that  there  was  nothing 
of  bunjinga  carelessness  in  their  work,  every  stroke  being  as  clear  and 
crisp  as  a  Bayen.  Beigensho,  on  the  other  hand,  seems  really  to  have 
originated  a  kind  of  sloppy  style,  out  of  the  suggestions  of  Hankwan, 
which  may  be  called  the  ancestor  of  bunjinga.  It  is  fine  and  striking  in  its 
notan,  but  almost  childish  in  its  drawing.  It  may  be  suspected,  however, 
that  this  has  been  falsely  fathered  upon  Beigensho  by  some  Yuen  enthusiast. 

In  1 00 1  Kiso  Kotei  (Hiu-tsung)  came  to  the  throne,  and  what  is 
sometimes  called  the  brightest  era  of  Asiatic  art  came  in.  There  were  no 
geniuses  as  supreme  as  the  retiring  Ririomin.  The  Emperor  himself  came 
nearest  to  this  high  standard.  Most  imperial  attempts  at  art  are 
only  flattered  mediocrity  ;  but  Kiso's  work  really  rises  to  the  heights. 
He  proceeded  at  once  to  collect  about  him  all  the  able  painters  he 
could  lay  his  hands  on,  organize  them  in  a  more  special  way  than  as 
mere  courtiers,  compose  a  great  art  academy  in  fact,  with  definite 
studies,  exhibitions,  and  rank  for  prizes.  The  Confucians  have  always 
sneered  at  this  organization,  and  its  successor  in  Southern  Sung,  as 
the  prostitution  of  talent  to  officialdom.  No  doubt  danger  would  lie 
along  this  line  if  the  standard  were  not  kept  extraordinarily  high. 
This  Kiso  attended  to  by  collecting  the  most  complete  Art  Museum 
of  masterpieces  that  China  ever  saw.  This  was  the  famous  Senkwa '" 
collection  (Senkwa  period  11 19  to  1125),  of  which  an  account  was 
published  in  printed  form.f  To  illustrate  its  scale  we  may  mention 
that  it  owned  more  than  a  hundred  of  Ririomin's  pictures. 

The  Emperor  graciously  took  his  associates  through  the  Museum, 
pointing  out  the  characteristic  beauties,  and  urging  the  influence  of  the 
best  models.  He  himself  set  subjects  for  the  artists,  presided  at  the 
symposium  where  the  experiments  were  compared,  and  passed  personal 
criticism  upon  them.  Our  own  little  "  Kangwakwai,"  in  Japan,  from 
1880  to  1886,  modelled  its  procedure  on  that  of  Kiso's  Academy — 
(see  Chapter  I,).  But  in  his  day  the  whole  Chinese  world  was  under 
the  eye  ;     in  our  day    but  the   shadow  of  the  shadow. 

Foremost  among  the    artists    stands    out   the    Emperor  Kiso.     It    is 

*  Senkwa,  in  Chinese  "  Hsuan-ho." 

tit  is  still  to  be  obtained  in  Japan,  where  it  is  known  as  the  "  Haibunsai  Shogwafu." — Ed. 
VOL.   II.  C 


28       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

openly  said  in  his  biography  that  his  style  is  based  upon  Ririomln's 
later  manner.  We  can  understand  this  well  from  his  splendid  Buddhist 
picture  of  Shaka,  Monju  and  Fugen,  in  colour,  kept  in  one  of  the  smaller 
temples  near  Kioto.  The  figure  of  the  youthful  Monju,  a  girlish  boy, 
wrapped  in  long  twisting  folds  of  mantle,  is  one  of  the  most  Grecian  figures 
in  art.  Its  lines  are  more  effeminate  than  Ririomin's.  The  Senkwa 
art,  indeed,  often  ran  to  minuteness,  and  sometimes  rather  than 
strength.  Kiso's  white  hawk  and  iridescent  pigeon  among  peach 
blossoms  show  how  he  could  create  in  the  manner  of  Joki.  But  perhaps 
his  greatest  in  landscape,  the  two  fine  pieces  kept  at  Daitokuji,  Kioto, 
being  enough  for  the  fame  of  any  man.  One  shows  a  poet — likely 
enough  Ririomin  himself — who  has  climbed  to  a  great  ledge  among  the 
mountains,  where  he  has  thrown  himself  down  at  the  root  of  a  cedar 
tree  almost  torn  to  pieces  by  the  storms  that  have  swept  over  its 
conspicuous  site.  A  great  rock  buttresses  the  foreground.  Far  below 
are  seen  the  ridges  of  adjacent  spurs.  White  clouds,  done  in  solid 
white,  sail  away  into  the  melting  air.  A  wild  stork,  flying,  seems  to 
lose  itself  in  infinity.  The  careless  pose  of  the  poet  is  fine,  with  one 
arm  thrown  up  against  the  rough  tree-trunk.  The  torn  branches  are 
done  with    a  power  that  resembles  Zengetsu  Daishi. 

The  other  scene  is  of  a  mighty  foreground  rock  tipped  with 
bamboo  trees  that  nod  to  a  waterfall  springing  across  a  cleft.  A 
monkey  sits  gibbering  from  a  tree  above  the  waterfall.  Among  the 
broken  rocks  below  a  standing  figure  with  hood  and  staff  looks  back 
and  down  into  the  wild  abyss.  It  is  early  morning,  and  the  frosts 
of  a  wintry  night  still  tingle  unmelted  upon  rock  and  leaf.  The 
drawing  of  the  figure  is  wonderfully  fine,  simpler  even  than  Ririomin. 
We  can  see  from  these  that  Kiso's  style  in  landscape  is  no  imitation 
of  either  Godoshi  or  Kakki.  It  uses  lines  with  great  force,  but  they 
are  elegant  and  few.  It  does  not  attempt  to  render  space  and  glow 
by  great  patches  of  light  and  dark  ;  nor  does  it  blur  its  masses  into 
impressionistic  effects.  Every  detail  is  drawn  with  utmost  crispness, 
yet  the  effect  is  large,  due  to  the  perfection  of  the  drawing.  The 
grandeur  lies  in  the  spacing.  The  dark  is  local  colour,  spotted  upon 
things  sparingly.  The  style  and  strokes  foreshadow  the  incisiveness  of 
Bayen.  Here  is  a  line  of  cleavage  between  the  early  landscape  of 
Northern  Sung  and  the  landscape   of  the  Southern. 

Associated  with  Kiso  in  his  long  aesthetic  reign,  from  iioi  to  1126, 


Il 


Cloud  Landscape.     By  Beigensho  (Mi  Yuan-chang). 


%J^   ^&fl^ 


Genre  Sketch  of  a  Chinese  Peddler  of  To^ 
By  Jinkomi  (Kao  K'o-ming). 


Painting  :  Sung  Lady  leaning  against  a  Pine 
Tree.     Attributed  to  Chosenri  (Chao  Ta-nien) 
Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN    CHINA  29 

were  several  other  members  of  the  imperial  clan  of  Sung,  especially 
Chotainen  (Chao  Ta-nien),  the  painter  of  delicate  impressionistic  landscapes 
in  colour,  and  Chosenri  (Chao  Ch'ien-li),  whose  work  is  more  like  Kiso. 
Rito  has  left  us  fine  drawings  of  landscape,  and  particularly  of  cows,  in 
which  he  was  hardly  inferior  to  Taisu  of  Tang.  He  was  especially 
famous  about  11 11,  and  died  somewhere  near  eighty  years  of  age, 
about  1 1 30.  Riteiki  (Li  Ti)  was  a  Senkwa  man  who  essayed  both  land- 
scape and  figures.  Rianchu  (Li  An-chung),  also  of  Senkwa,  put  the  finest 
touch  into  birds  and  running  horses.  He  it  is  who  has  left  us  vivid 
drawings  of  the  Kin  Tartars,  who  were  even  then,  because  of  Kiso's 
vacillation,  threatening  the  Northern  Empire  with  destruction.  A  Tartar 
on  horse-back,  killing  a  wild  deer  with  a  weight  wielded  by  a  string, 
is  reproduced.  Jinkomi  has  left  us  a  fine  genre  scene  of  country  life, 
where  many  children  and  a  nursing  mother  are  attracted  by  the 
wares  of  a  moustached  pedlar.  It  is  in  the  style  of  Ririomin  modified 
by  Kiso.  The  many  seals  upon  it  are  believed  to  be  of  the  several 
imperial  collections  in    which  it  has  been  treasured. 

But  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  picture  of  this  age,  next  to  Kiso 
Kotei's,  is  the  Sung  lady  leaning  upon  the  great  chocolate  trunk  of  a 
twisting  pine  tree,  owned  by  Mr.  Freer.  This,  too,  has  imperial 
seals.  It  is  tinted  in  most  delicate  colour,  and  the  tree  is  drawn 
with  wonderful  force  of  crouching  branches.  The  masses  of  the 
leaves  are  broad,  though  executed  with  hair  lines.  They  are  of  a 
wonderful  bluish-olive  in  tone.  Rocks  of  pale  bluish  malachite  are 
at  the  bottom  ;  a  blossoming  tree,  the  fragrant  "  wild  olive,"  rises  at 
the  left.  Clouds  of  low,  smothered  opaque  creams  boom  through 
the  composition.  The  figure  is  most  delicately  drawn,  and  tinted  in 
soft,  warm  yellows.  The  whole  forms  an  impression  of  incomparable 
peace  and  beauty.  I  am  inclined  to  ascribe  this  gem  to  Chosenri 
(Chao  Ta-nien)  himself,  the  cousin  of  Kiso. 

The  accessories  of  life  at  this  day  must  have  been  very  rich.  The 
splendour  of  pattern,  working  into  the  rhythms  of  living  forms, 
dragons,  lions,  and  birds,  can  be  seen  in  the  robes  of  Ririomin's  Rakan. 
The  palaces  were  gorgeous,  more  like  what  Kimura  painted  for  us  in 
1880  ;   the  Emperor  constructed  a  beautiful  lake  near  the  palace  grounds. 

We  may  add  that  book-printing  probably  began  at  this  day.  The 
sudden  tragic  cataclysm  that  destroyed  this  idyllic  peace  and  asstheticism, 
and  caused  the  change  to  Southern  Sung,  must  have  its  story  deferred 
to  the    next    chapter. 

c  2 


Chapter    XL 

IDEALISTIC  ART  IN   CHINA. 
Southern  Sung. 

KISO  KOTEI'S  (Hui-Tsung's)  wonderful  twenty-five  years  of 
aesthetic  illumination  at  Kaifongfu  on  the  Southern  bank  of 
the  Hoangho  River,  and  therefore  close  to  the  most  ancient 
centres  of  Chinese  civilization,  was  rudely  threatened  and  broken  up  by 
a  tragedy  more  national  than  the  somewhat  private  feuds  that  destroyed 
Genso  of  Tang.  It  was  the  capture  of  the  city  and  the  whole  of 
North  China  by  the  Kin  Tartars  in  1126.  The  responsibility  for  this 
stupendous  misfortune  has  been  laid  by  all  chroniclers  at  the  door 
of  Kiso's  impious  asstheticism.  He  has  been  represented  as  a  Chinese 
Nero,  fiddling  away  his  soul  ecstasy  with  brush  and  pen,  while  Kaifong 
burned.  Yet  some  of  those  ministers  who  gave  him  the  very  worst 
advice  were  the  Confucians.  When  have  Chinese  scholars  made  great 
generals  } 

These  Tartars,  the  most  civilized  of  their  race,  had  been  in  touch 
with  China  for  some  time.  Something  of  Sung  culture  had  penetrated 
to  them.  In  11 14  they  were  pressing  so  hard  upon  the  province  of 
Liang  that  the  latter,  without  the  consent  of  Sung,  attacked  the  Tartars 
and  defeated  them.  The  Tartar  chief,  however,  prevailed  upon  Kiso's 
weak  government  to  aid  him  in  this  attack  of  a  rebellious  province.  In 
a  bitter  campaign  of  seven  years  the  valiant  Liang  was  extinguished. 
Then  the  Kin  chief  turned  upon  his  imperial  allies,  demanding  land 
and  recognition  as  an  equal.  Sung  was  in  no  position  to  withstand 
this  powerful  Goth,  and  after  some  violence  was  forced  to  make  a 
disgraceful  peace  which  virtually  surrendered  all  North  China,  including 
the  person  of  Kiso  himself  to  the  Kin,  and  allowed  the  Chinese  court 
peacefully  to  retire  to  some  new  capital  far  in  the  south.  This  episode 
of  1 1 27  is  spoken  of  regretfully  in  Chinese  history  as  "the  crossing," 
meaning  the  crossing  of  the  Yangtse  River  below  which  they  chose  in 
1 138    as    their    capital    upon    the    coast    the    already  picturesque   city    of 


Stone  Bridge  in  Garden  near  Hangchow, 
at  the  present  day. 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN    CHINA  31 

Hangchow.  No  doubt  its  beauty,  with  a  neighbouring  lake  surrounded 
by  fine  mountains,  played  considerable  part  in  the  choice.  Here  Toba 
the  poet  had  been  governor  only  a  few  years  before,  and  had  repaired 
the  causeways  which  intersected  the  lake,  and  rebuilt  many  bridges. 
Now  the  city  was  laid  out  on  a  larger  scale,  with  heavy  walls  of 
masonry  facing  the  lake,  through  which  walls  lofty  gates  gave  egress 
to  the  shipping  on  the  canals.  For  Hangchow  was  a  sort  of  splendid 
Venice,  crossed  by  many  waterways  and  enriched  by  hundreds  of  fine 
arched  bridges  of  a  type  which  still  remains  throughout  that  part  of 
the  south.  The  palace  was  built  upon  a  rolling  tongue  of  land  which 
separated  the  lake  from  the  great  Sento  river  that  was  here  becoming 
an  estuary  before  it  emptied  into  the  sea. 

Marco  Polo  saw  this  city  a  few  years  after  its  greatest  growth, 
about  the  year  1300.  When  it  fell  in  1279,  '^  ^^^  been  the  most 
brilliant  and  intellectual  capital  that  China  ever  saw  for  only  one 
hundred  and  fifty-two  years.  I  would  refer  the  reader  to  Polo's 
description  of  it  as  being  far  ahead  of  anything  in  Europe  at  that 
day,  the  bridges,  the  public  buildings,  the  universal  supply  through 
leaden  pipes  of  hot  water  for  bathing,  the  refinement  of  the  people  ; 
the  crowded  villas,  temples  and  pleasure  houses  set  in  picturesque 
nooks  about  the  shores  of  the  lake.  Many  of  these  architectural 
splendours  actually  remained  until  the  terrible  destruction  of  Hangchow 
by  the  Taipings  in  i860.  That,  indeed,  was  like  the  explosion  of 
the  Parthenon  by  Austrians  in  the  seventeenth  century.  To-day  we 
should  understand  the  real  ancient  heart  of  China  far  better  but  for 
that  misfortune. 

One  cannot  help  pitying  poor  Kiso  in  his  long  captivity  among 
the  Kins,  who  now  established  their  capital  near  the  present  Peking. 
Though  it  was  nominal  captivity,  yet  we  may  be  sure  that  he  was 
in  the  midst  of  millions  of  his  own  countrymen,  in  his  country's 
ancient  seats,  and,  though  shorn  of  all  power,  that  he  spent  a  dignified 
decline  in  aesthetic  pursuits,  and  undoubtedly  did  much  to  civilize 
his  captors.  When  the  Kin  empire  itself  fell  before  the  all-conquering 
Mongols,  a  century  later,  it  was  already  the  seat  of  advanced 
culture.  The  study  of  this  Kin  art  and  literature  will  some 
day  be  very  interesting,  and  some  painting  executed  by  Kiso  in 
his  retirement  may  yet  turn  up.  He  died  among  his  captors 
in    1135. 


32       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

But,  so  far  from  being  discouraged  by  Kiso's  assthetic  "excesses," 
the  new  government  at  Hangchow  plunged  into  the  delights  of  art 
with  a  new  ardour.  The  Imperial  Art  Institute  became  now  an 
organic  part  of  the  Court  Service,  with  examinations  and  court  rank 
of  almost  equal  importance  with  the  institutes  of  literature.  The 
later  Chinese  have  never  forgiven  the  great  court  artists  of  Hangchow, 
such  as  Bayen  (Ma  Yuan)  and  Kakei  (Hsia  Kwi),  for  being  "  pro- 
fessional artists,"  "at  the  beck  of  monarchs,"  etc.,  etc.  They  look 
back  with  praise  to  Enriuhon  (Yen  Li-pen),  of  Tang,  who  was 
"ashamed  of  being  a  painter,"  It  is  much  as  in  English  fiction  that 
a  hearty  Saxon  aristocrat  looks  down  on  a  "  tradesman."  We  can 
see  that  the  scholars  in  their  own  hearts  had  little  real  love  for  an  art 
they  would  so  demean.  Its  moral  uses  were  what  saved  it,  according 
to  their  idea,  and  its  "  literary  freedom."  It  is  one  of  the  anomalies 
of  Chinese  civilization  that  these  pedants  raised  the  standard  of 
"freedom"  to  cloak  the  most  narrow  creed  and  tyrannical  conformity. 
In  this  they  were  not  so  much  unlike  their  New  England  fellow- 
Puritans.  On  the  other  hand,  under  the  magnificent  system  of  training 
of  the  Sung  academy,  genius  found  its  fullest  means  of  expression. 
No  French  impressionist  could  be  more  "  free "  and  picturesque  and 
assthetic  in  his  methods  than  Kakei.  The  state  of  things  was  much 
more  like  that  of  Phidias  under  Pericles,  or  the  Florentine  artists 
under  the  Medici.  In  that  fervour  of  magnificent  work  which  electri- 
fied the  beautiful  Italian  city  under  Lorenzo's  wise  patronage,  a 
thousand  competing  artists  found  their  ranking  upon  a  scale  of  absolute 
merit.  Where  a  public  as  well  as  a  court  is  a-thrill  with  the  highest 
taste,  there  is  no  room  for  official  favouritism.  So  tremendous  was 
the  spiritual  momentum  of  Hangchow  art,  and  so  high  its  standard, 
that  it  succeeded  in  maintaining  itself,  like  a  wedge,  far  into  later 
alien    bodies    of  Yuen    and    Ming   work. 

That  the  passionate  love  of  landscape  should  come  to  dominate 
this  new  art,  even  more  absolutely  than  it  had  done  under  Northern 
Sung,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  court  was  once  more  in  its  native 
South.  Not  far  away  up  the  river  lay  in  pathetic  desolation  the  very 
site  where  Butei  *  of  Rio  had  held  Buddhist  services  in  his  ancient 
Nanking.  Not  far  away  to  the  north-west  rose  those  grand  chains 
of  mountains,  jewelled  with  lakes,  which    Toemmei  and    Shareiwun  had 

*  In    Chinese,   Wu  Ti  of  L'iang. 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  33 

celebrated  in  their  first  landscape  poetry.  It  was  the  "  Lake  Country," 
the  home  of  the  Chinese  Wordsworths.  The  great  Northern  landscape 
poetry  of  Tang  had  been  but  a  reflection  of  this  passionate  South 
into  the  whole  mirror  of  the  Chinese  mind.  So  again  in  early 
Sung,  it  had  been  the  artists  of  the  South,  who  coming  up  to 
Kaifong,  had  again  breathed  their  love  for  nature  into  the  same 
great  mirror.  The  whole  landscape  school  of  Northern  Sung  was 
but  an  imported  South,  And  now  the  capital  was  once  more  set  in 
that  blessed  South,  after  five  centuries  of  absence.  Landscape  should 
be  no  longer  an  imported  ideal.  The  very  mountains  and  waters, 
of  which  its  name  is  made  up,  could  paint  themselves  on  the 
sensitive  fabric  of  every  heart.  Never  in  the  world,  before  or 
since,  and  nowhere  but  in  Hangchow,  has  there  been  an  epoch, 
an  illumination,  in  which  landscape  art  could  give  vent  to  a  great 
people's  passion,  intellect,  and  genius.  What  Christian  emotion  was 
to  the  early  Italian  cinquecento,  what  Buddhist  emotion  was  to  the 
over-cultured  Fujiwara  at  Kioto,  that  now  landscape  emotion  became 
for  the  Chinese  of  Hangchow.  Fra  Angelico  and  Yeishin  Sozu, 
so  much  alike,  must  now  make  a  strange  companion  of  the 
absorbed  Mokkei  (Mu  Ch'i). 

Here,  too,  we  put  our  finger  upon  the  fact  that  it  was  this  very 
South  that  had  been  the  original  and  continued  seat  of  the  Zen  sect 
of  nature  contemplators.  Already  before  "the  crossing,"  its  sombre 
temples  and  mighty  pine-trees  of  the  temple  yards  had  covered  many 
a  lofty  site  about  Seiko  Lake.  All  that  Kakki  says  of  symbolism 
and  poetical  interpretation  in  his  great  essay  was  now  more  than 
realised  in  Zen  philosophy.  The  Taoist  interpretation  becomes  quite 
overshadowed  by  the  Zen.  Every  Zen  monk  and  abbot  in  Southern 
Sung  becomes  a  landscape  painter,  or  introduces  figures  that  seem  to 
melt  down  into  the  very  substance  of  the  landscape.  Many  successors 
of  Kakki  arose  as  writers  on  landscape,  some  of  whose  works  I  shall 
shortly  quote.  Poetry  did  not  reach  the  heights  of  earlier  times.  Genius 
was   absorbed    in  painting. 

It  is  worth  while  now  to  ask  what  had  become  of  the  valiant  protests 
of  Oanseki,  fifty  years  before,  against  the  encroachments  of  Confucian 
formalism  upon  the  Chinese  Intellect.  The  most  conservative  wing  of 
the  scholars'  party  had  never  been  able  to  reinstate  themselves  in 
imperial    favour.     The    new    Emperors    in    the    South    were    far    from 


34       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

allowing  themselves  to  be  recaptured  by  an  ascetic  ritualism.  But  the 
problem  had  to  be  faced  in  a  new  form.  To  have  Chinese  polity- 
based  upon  two  bitterly  antagonistic  philosophies  augured  weakness  for 
the  future.  The  Confucian  danger  might  be  eliminated  once  for  all, 
not  by  opposing,  but  by  transforming  Confucius  himself  It  augurs 
much  for  the  nobility  of  the  Sung  intelligence  that  it  could  clearly 
put  to  itself  such  a  problem.  The  problem,  in  its  large  range,  as 
it  worked  itself  out  through  three  generations  of  great  Chinese  meta- 
physicians, was  how  to  fuse  Confucianism,  Taoism  and  Buddhism  (Zen) 
into  a  single  working  system.  I  suppose  that  this  is  the  greatest 
intellectual  feat  accomplished  by  Chinese  thought  during  the  five 
millennia  of  its  existence.  It  is  as  when  a  Leibnitz,  a  Kant,  a  Hegel 
arose  to  reduce  dry  European  formulas  with  scientific  and  idealistic 
solvents. 

The  great  philosopher  Teishi  had  already  begun  the  work  at  the 
end  of  Northern  Sung.  The  Confucianists  of  the  South  tried  in 
vain  to  proscribe  his  doctrines  in  1136.  The  central  work  was  done 
in  1177  by  the  still  greater  Shushi,  in  his  most  original  commentaries 
on  the  Alalects  of  Confucius  and  on  Mencius.  In  11 93  Shuki  had 
extended  the  system  to  the  whole  round  of  Confucian  literature.  But 
in  1 1 96  another  temporary  decree,  procured  by  the  unregenerate 
Confucians,  prohibited  the  reading  of  all  this  work  as  "  false  philosophy." 
Yet   in    1 24 1    his  tablet  was  placed  in  the  Confucian  temple. 

To  an  outsider  it  must  appear  as  a  matter  of  infinite  thanks, 
must  appear  as  a  spectacle  of  unique  grandeur,  this  last  effort  of  the 
great  Chinese  mind  to  raise  itself  into  a  plane  of  universal  human 
thought  —  to  make  itself  the  fellow  of  Plato  in  the  ancient  world 
and  of  Hegel  in  the  modern.  For  the  tragedy  was  at  hand  ;  the 
last  chance  was  about  to  be  cut  off.  That  Scourge  of  the  World, 
Genghis  Khan,  became  chief  of  the  Mongols  in  1206,  only  six  years 
after  the  death  of  Shuki,  and  inaugurated  that  policy  which  eventually 
swept  down  before  his  fanatical  tribe  all  of  Asia  and  half  of  Europe, 
like  fields  of  wheat  before  a  mowing  machine.  With  the  final  destruction 
of  Sung  fell  the  real  creative  ability  of  the  Chinese  race.  After  the 
Yuen  debauch,  it  is  true,  the  Ming  tried  to  revive  art,  literature  and 
thought  ;  but  it  was  too  late.  The  brain  was  ossifying.  Stereotyped 
categories  were  supplanting  the  free  play  of  ganglia — '^  Freedom  is 
beauty "    had  become    mere    words,   incapable    of  translation    into  deeds. 


THE    EARTHLY    PARADISE 

Artist  unknown  ;    Ming  dynasty 
(British  Museum) 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  35 

The  nation  was  already  virtually  dead,  in  that  no  reconstruction  from 
within  was  possible.  Thus  we  watch  the  last  flare  up  of  Chinese 
genius  at  Hangchow  with  a  melancholy  and  tragic  interest. 

The  Philosophy  was  a  splendid  one  ;  but  this  is  hardly  the  place 
to  expound  it.  Enough  to  say  that  it  substituted  for  the  hard  classes, 
the  fixed  categories,  the  ritualistic  forms  of  the  old  Confucianism,  a 
doctrine  of  inner  evolution,  by  which  the  fixed  points  became  fluid, 
and  passed  into  each  other  by  a  logical  order,  akin  to  historical  order 
in  human  aff^airs.  A  thought  is  what  it  becomes  ;  so  is  an  institution. 
The  "  mean  "  of  Confucius  is  no  abstract  compromise  nor  mere 
grammatical  genus,  but  a  healthy  elastic  working  in  a  sort  of  spiral. 
The  true  spiritual  type  is  individuality  ;  not  a  negative  freedom  to 
abandonment,  but  the  place  in  which  the  needs  of  readjustment  must 
find  room.  Moral  discipline,  but  not  asceticism,  is  its  privilege.  There 
is  no  natural  inferiority  in  human  souls,  not  even  of  children  or  women. 
If  we  had  the  full  texts  of  Confucius,  we  should  have  found  him  the 
bitterest  enemy  of  the  formalism  founded  upon  him.  In  the  Analects 
we  find  the  germ  of  a  doctrine  of  individuality.  In  the  more  ancient 
Y-King,  evolution  is  clearly  stated.  Laotze's  idealism  is  only  a  derivation 
from  the  Y-King.  The  Taoist  magicians  travesty  the  power  of  soul, 
but  do  service  in  calling  attention  to  nature.  As  we  should  say 
they  are  the  alchemists  of  their  world.  Buddhism,  too,  in  its  later 
forms,  is  evolutionary,  and  holds  to  the  integrity  of  the  soul,  even 
through  the  possible  superstition  of  reincarnations.  Zen  Buddhism 
particularly  inculcates  that  fresh  spontaneity  which  nature  and  life  and 
normal  society  exhibit.  In  an  evolving  individuality,  therefore,  an 
individuality  which  takes  its  place  with  others  in  the  harmonic  circle, 
we  have  a  working  union  between  the  three  Chinese  religions.  They 
are  only  partial  expressions  for  one  and  the  same  thing.  Over  all  is 
Heaven  ;  through  all  is  harmony  and  beauty  ;  nature  and  man  are 
brothers  ;  the  soul  is  but  a  child  growing  more  and  more  into  the 
stature  of  its  parent,  Heaven.  Surely  this  is  well  nigh  up  to  the  most 
advanced  Christian  philosophy  ;  and  goes  far  to  solve  the  eternal 
antimony  between  the  individual  and  society. 

The  sort  of  life  that  came  upon  Hangchow  with  the  practical 
cessation  of  party  strife  may  be  called  the  most  idyllic  illumination 
of  all  human  experience.  Statesmen,  artists,  poets,  Zen  priests,  met 
upon  a  basis  of  spiritual  equality,   were  close  friends   interested  in   each 


36       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

other's  works,  and  often  combined  functions  in  one  and  the  same 
person.  They  spent  their  mornings  at  work  in  the  city  ;  but  their 
afternoons,  evenings  and  holidays  on  the  lakes,  at  the  terraces  on  the 
causeways  or  the  rocky  islands,  among  the  Buddhist  temples  that  invited 
them  by  winding  inclines  up  every  steep,  in  the  countless  villas  that 
dotted  the  edge  of  every  bay  and  creek.  Great  two-storied  pavilions  looked 
down  upon  the  lake  from  above  the  city  walls,  or  from  the  bastioned 
rocks,  where  parties  might  congregate,  and  in  conviviality  enjoy  the  beauties 
of  sunsets  or  discuss  poetry.  These  lovely  villas  surrounded  them- 
selves with  gardens  in  which  cool  terraces,  and  graceful  marble  bridges, 
and  lotos  ponds  walled  in  with  stone  and  overhung  by  swaying  trees, 
played  necessary  part.  And  some  of  these  exquisite  gardens  remain 
yet,  overgrown  perhaps,  but  with  strange  latticed  windows  and  circular 
doors  opening  from  cool  interiors,  in  Hangchow  itself,  or  in  the 
great  neighbouring  city  of  Fuchow,  and  in  the  country  retreats  of  the 
whole  vicinity. 

A  photograph  of  one  of  these  gardens,  kindly  lent  me  by  a  recent 
traveller,  an  American  lady  and  an  artist,  I  reproduce  here  side  by  side 
with  a  similar  scene  painted  contemporaneously  by  the  Sung  artist, 
Bayen.  Still  to-day  the  great  pagoda  of  the  six  warriors  dominates 
the  hills,  rising  from  the  river,  where  the  Sung  palace  stood.  But 
it  was  in  the  still  cooler  recesses  of  the  Zen  temples  in  their  secluded 
groves  that  the  finest  thought  and  art  were  brewed,  by  choicer  spirits 
who  rarely  came  to  the  metropolis,  human  beings  as  free  and  wild  and 
impressionable  as  mountain  deer  and  graceful  herons.  Such  were  the 
priestly  artists  of  the  Mokkei  class. 

Besides  history,  philosophy  and  painting,  the  art  of  these  happy 
idealists  cared  specially  for  pottery.  They  are  indeed  the  inventory  of 
that  creamy-brown  and  mottled  warmth  of  greys,  and  suggestions  of 
cool  purples  and  milky-blue  in  the  opaque  glazes  that  overlay  the 
tawny  clays  of  the  ground.  The  very  way  in  which  the  glaze  runs, 
like  the  play  of  semi-transparent  thin  waves  hurling  their  light  lassoes 
over  the  warmth  of  wet  sand,  is  also  like  the  play  of  opaque  pigment 
in  a  fine  painting  that  finds  telling  place  over  the  depths  of  prepared 
grounds.  The  work  of  Whistler,  both  in  water  and  in  oil,  particularly 
exhibits  this  effect  of  scumbling,  which  is  like  Sung  glazes.  The  fine 
painting  of  Chosenri  (see  page  29)  exhibits,  in  photograph,  almost  the 
same  law  of  spotting  as  the  Kioto  square  vase,  based  upon  Sung  colour. 


V*^« 


Bamboo  and  \'illa  in  \\'intp:k. 
By  Bayen  (Ma  Yuan). 


.^. 


Remains  of  ax  old  Haxg  Chow  Garden 
at  the  present  day. 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  37 

It    is    because    of    this    subtle    influence    of    pottery    upon    painting   that 
Mr.  Freer  has  made  his  collection  consist  of  its  three  famous  parts. 

We  come  now  to  those  leading  artists  of  Southern  Sung,  whether 
teachers  of  the  academy  or  retiring  priests,  who  form  the  glory  of  Sung 
art,  who  became  the  models  of  later  Japanese  art,  and  who  have  still 
much  of  surprising  beauty  to  reveal  to   the  Western  world. 

The  first  generation  of  Southern  Sung  men  had  been  trained  in 
the  great  Senkwa  school  of  Kiso,  and  participated  in  "the  Crossing" 
to  the  South.  Among  these  men  were  the  Riteiki  and  Rianshu  already 
mentioned,  and  the  aged  Rito.  Riteiki  was  made  vice-director  of  the  new 
academy.  With  them  came  Sokanshin  ;  but  Yohoshi  (Yang  Pu-chih),  who 
had  been  one  of  the  geniuses  whom  Kiso  had  tried  to  train,  refused  to 
come  at  Kiso's  invitation.  He  had  a  wild  talent  which  painted  only 
in  great  feeling,  and  confined  himself  largely  to  painting  sprays  of  plum, 
orchid,  bamboo  and  pine,  all  in  ink  of  several  tones.  One  of  the 
very  last  things  that  Kiso  had  done  was  to  criticize  a  painting  of 
plum  branches  by  Yohoshi  as  a  "village  plum,"  and  ask  him  to  paint 
it  over  again  with  "  few  branches  and  cold  leaves,"  "  whose  purity  shall 
seem  to  be  human."  Shortly  after,  before  the  new  work  could  be 
finished,  Kiso  was  in  captivity. 

Of  the  earlier  men  who  probably  began  work  in  the  South  itself 
under  the  first  Emperor,  were  Bakoso,*  the  most  famous  critic  of  the 
new  academy,  and  Bakwashi,t  a  native  of  Hangchow,  who  painted  a  set 
of  three  hundred  pieces  illustrating  all  the  ancient  odes  compiled  by 
Confucius.  A  poetical  comment  which  existed,  on  one  of  his  pieces, 
and  is  quoted  in  Chinese  literature,  shows  us  such  a  picture  of  indi- 
vidual character,  that  it  throws  light  for  us  not  only  on  the  painter's 
work,  but  on  Chinese  poetry.  "The  night  water-clock  has  already 
stopped,  and  the  frozen  stork  has  fallen  asleep.  The  dark-headed  servant 
is  warming  himself  by  the  fire,  with  his  two  knees  crossed  in  front  of 
him.  Before  the  nappina:  old  man  stands  a  mouth-cracked  jar  holding 
a  branch  of  blossoming  plum." 

It  was  very  common  for  Chinese  poets  and  critics  to  write  upon  the 
free  spaces  of  pictures,  and  the  habit  was  imitated  by  the  Japanese  of 
Ashikaga.  So  universal  did  it  become  in  Southern  Sung,  that  a  scholar 
was  asked  to  dedicate  a  painting  as  soon  as  made.     This  was  carrying  out 

*   In  Chinese,  Ma  Hsing-Tsu. 
t  In  Chinese,  Ma  Kung-hsicn. 


38       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

the  old  dictum,  that  poetry  and  painting  are  only  varying  forms  of  each 
other.  It  thrilled  the  Chinese  connoisseur  to  see  two  such  supreme  beauties 
presented  as  one.  A  third  art,  namely,  the  beauty  of  the  handwriting, 
was  often  added,  when  the  poet  happened  to  be  a  noted  chirographer. 

Bakoku,  the  son  of  Bakoso,  rose  high  in  the  artistic  examinations, 
and  received  the  badge  of  the  golden  order,  which  Riteiki  had  held. 
He  and  his  younger  brother  Bakeisei  worked  for  the  second  Emperor 
down  to  1 1 90.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  first  Emperor  Koso, 
who  crossed  with  his  Court  in  1127,  built  his  palace  at  Hangchow  in 
1138,  and  ruled  for  the  most  part  peacefully  as  a  great  patron  of  arts 
until  1 1 62 — although  he  then  resigned  in  favour  of  the  second  Emperor, 
he  still  lived  on  in  a  ripe  old  age  of  aesthetic  enjoyment  until  1 187.  This 
great  period  of  sixty  years  saw  two  generations  of  artists  rise  and  pass  away. 
Other  artists  of  this  great  Koso  period  were  Mosho,  a  painter  of  animals, 
and  his  son  Moyeki  (Mao  Yih),  a  still  more  famous  painter,  who  took 
his  artists'  degree  in  the  period  Kendo  (1165-1173).  Moyeki  particularly 
loved  to  paint  cats  and  tigers,  with  the  fine  crouch,  and  the  soft  gleaming 
fur.  In  power  and  delicacy  he  is  far  ahead  of  those  later  realistic  animal 
painters  of  China,  whose  works  we  mostly  see  ;  and  also  ahead  of  such 
Japanese  Shijo  men  as  Ganku  and  Sosen.  The  small  painting  of  a 
crouching  tiger  which  we  here  reproduce  shows  the  So  method  of 
painting  in  its  most  perfect  original  form.  In  both  form  and  colour  it 
might  be  compared  with  a  Rembrandt  or  a  Rubens.  It  is  perhaps  the 
finest  original  of  Moyeki  now  remaining,  and  is  one  of  the  gems  of  Mr. 
Freer's  collection.  Moyeki  probably  lasted  on  into  the  next  great  period. 
That  the  reign  of  the  fourth  Hangchow  Emperor,  Neiso  (Nin  tsung), 
is  the  very  centre  of  Sung  genius  and  illumination  must  be  recognized. 
It  lasted  from  1195  to  1224;  but  with  it  we  may  well  include  the 
end  of  the  reign  of  the  second  Emperor  and  the  short  reign  of  the 
third — that  is  from  1187  to  1224.  In  this  way  we  can  divide  the 
great  Hangchow  movement,  in  all  but  its  very  latest  struggling  years, 
into  three  clear  portions  : — 

The  life  of  Koso — 1127  to   1187. 

The  age  of  Neiso — 1187  to   1225. 

The  reign  of  Riso — 1225  to   1264."'* 

♦These  important  dates  do  not  correspond  exactly  with  other  printed  versions  of  them, 
but  since  these  were  verified  in  Japan,  in  the  spring  of  19 10,  by  several  well-known  Chinese 
scholars,  I  think  they  had  better  remain  as  they  are. — M.  F. 


Jh 

m 

^ 

u 

fe 

1 

J 

O 

J 

>. 

5 

M 

O 

0-2 


Three  Ducks,     B\-  .Munju. 


al 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN    CHINA  39 

The  first  is  the  preparation,  based  upon  the  work  of  Senkwa  ;  the 
second  is  the  culmination,  realizing  the  new  Hangchow  genius  in  both 
philosophy  and  painting,  the  third  is  the  persistence,  with  a  slight 
weakening  in  art,  and  troubled  by  the  rising  Mongols. 

That  the  age  of  Neiso  was  the  very  flowering  of  Hangchow  is  seen 
from  many  indications.  It  saw  the  supreme  philosophical  work,  the 
death,  and  the  posthumous  triumph  of  the  great  thinker  Shuki.  It  was 
an  age  of  great  refinement  and  learning  among  women.  And  it  was 
the  chief  seat  of  the  labours  of  the  greatest  painters  of  the  South,  Bayen, 
Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei),  and  Mokkei  (Mu  Ch'i). 

Bayen  (Ma  Yuan)  came  of  a  family  many  of  whose  members  were 
artists  as  far  back  as  Senkwa,  and  before.  His  grandfather  was  Bakoso, 
one  of  the  founders,  and  chief  critic,  of  the  Southern  Academy.  His 
father  was  Bakeisei,  a  respectable  associate  of  the  time  of  the  second 
Emperor.  His  uncle  was  the  great  Bakoku  who  held  the  golden 
badge.  He  probably  took  his  degree  about  11 80,  and,  his  extraordinary 
genius  being  at  once  recognized,  soon  became  the  greatest  professor 
and  the  most  famous  member  of  an  Academy  rich  in  prominent  geniuses. 
Many  of  his  pictures,  famous  in  imperial  collections,  are  described  for 
us  by  Sung  and  Ming  commentators.  By  the  last  of  Sung  his  fame 
had  already  passed  into  a  proverb. 

One  would  judge  that  Bayen  was  the  first  to  paint  the  subject  of 
the  three  founders — that  subject  which  Professor  Giles  mistook  for 
a  portrait  of  Christ  and  His  disciples!  It  reveals  Sakyamuni 
(Buddha — also  called  Shaka),  Confucius  and  Laotze,  the  founders  of 
China's  three  religions  and  schools  of  philosophy,  in  harmonius  inter- 
course, and  thus  typifies  the  new  great  Southern  Sung  philosophy 
of  the  contemporaneous  Shushi  and  Shuki*  which  had  in  theory 
united  them.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  fine  painting  of  this  subject 
by  Kano  Masanobu  (shown  in  Chapter  XIII.)  has  its  figures  copied  from 
this  design  by  Bayen.  At  least  the  composition  is  just  like  that 
described  by  a  Sung  critic,  who  speaks  of  the  Shaka  as  walking 
ahead  and  turning  back  to  Laotze  and  Confucius,  who  advance 
together.  This  beautifully  typifies  the  fact  that  Buddhist  influence 
was    from    outside     Indian    sources.     The    strong    head    of    Confucius 

*  Editor's  Note. — Dr.  N.  Ariga,  of  Tokio,  assures  me  that  these  two  names,  Shuki  and 
Shushi,  belong  to  one  person  ;  the  latter,  Shushi,  being  his  "philosopher  name." — M.  F. 


40       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE    ART 

betokens  individuality,  the  smiling  face  of  Laotze  brotherly  love, 
thus    seeming    to    exchange,    or    intermingle    positions. 

Bayen  was  the  second  to  paint  the  eight  famous  scenes  of 
Shosei  Lake,  which  only  Sobunshi  had  done  before  him,  a  few  years 
earlier.  Bunshin  had  done  it  on  a  picturesque  journey  ;  and  the 
synthesis  of  his  choice  was  probably  an  accident.  Bayen's,  which  were 
probably  far  finer,  really  established  the  type  as  a  recognized  set  for 
all    later    Chinese    and    Japanese    art. 

It  is  also  most  interesting  to  be  informed  that  whenever  Bayen 
painted  for  the  Emperor  (Neiso)  his  picture  was  commented  upon 
by  the  Emperor's  youngest  sister,  Yokei,  who  was  most  celebrated 
for  her  literary  skill  and  handwriting.  This  shows  both  Bayen's 
familiarity  with  the  palace  inmates,  and  the  advanced  place  of  women 
in    education — all    of   which    is    of  course   non-Confucian. 

The  strictures  passed  by  a  Ming  commentator  upon  both  Bayen 
and  Kakei,  that  they  are  poor  and  unworthy  in  style,  is  a  bit  of 
pure  Confucian  misconception.  Though  the  greatest  masters  of  ink 
style,  they  are  the  farthest  removed  from  anything  like  Bunjinga 
taint.  They  are  the  most  "  Northern "  of  the  later  class,  "  The 
Northern  School ! "  No  such  distinction,  however,  was  made  in  their 
day.  Extreme  Confucians  did  not  like  them  ;  but  all  Chinese 
artists  and  critics  of  any  power  have  regarded  them  as  standing  at 
the  top. 

Of  Bayen's  pictures  known  in  Japan  there  are  a  large  number, 
mostly  belonging  to  former  daimio  collections  (often  since  dispersed) 
or  occasionally  to  temples.  From  these  it  seems  clear  that  Bayen's 
style  goes  back  to  Kiso  Kotei,  and  so  remotely  to  Ririomin.  Or 
rather  we  may  say  that  he  relates  more  to  Ririomin  in  figures,  but 
more  to  Kiso  in  landscape.  There  is  little  in  him  of  the  grand 
sweep  of  moor  or  misty  blur  of  cloud  and  foliage,  such  as 
distinguished  the  early  Sung  landscape  of  Kakki  and  Risu.  His 
touch  is  rather  clear,  hard  and  firm,  not  getting  efi^ects  by  accident, 
but  by  complete  mastery  over  design.  He  gave  his  trees  a  clear, 
though  not  thick  outline  in  firmly  penned  ink.  His  colour  is 
generally  thin,  consisting  of  a  few  transparent  tints  that  just  modify 
the  prevailing  warm  monochrome  of  ink  and  paper.  In  this  he  is 
the  forerunner  of  the  coloured  landscape  of  the  Kano  school 
in  Japan. 


Hi 


Villa  with  Pine  Tree. 
Bv  Bayen  (Ma  Yuan). 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  41 

Bayen  loved  to  paint  the  beautiful  villas  that  surrounded  the 
western  lake,  or  were  set  like  gems  into  the  valleys  that  ran  back  into 
the  mountains.  One  of  the  most  beautiful  of  these  shows  a  one-storey 
pavilion,  open  at  the  sides,  but  screenable  by  roll-up  bamboo  curtains, 
and  edged  with  an  irregular  stone  facing  that  dips  into  the  waters  of 
a  river  or  pond.  Behind  a  finely  carved  railing  sits  a  Chinese  gentle- 
man with  a  round-bodied  lute  In  his  hand.  We  can  trace  the  tiled 
floor  and  the  solid  cylindrical  columns  of  the  pavilion  far  back  through 
the  opening.  There  are  beautiful  tones  of  soft  mauve  and  yellow  in 
the  hanging  decorations.  The  roofs  are  beautifully  tiled,  and  are  with- 
out that  Tartar  exaggeration  in  curve  which  modern  Chinese  drawing 
gives  ;  in  fact,  they  are  roofs  of  exactly  the  type  of  the  Japanese  temples 
of  Ashikaga.  Water-worn  rocks  painted  in  fine  crisp  outline,  not 
unlike  those  of  the  Ririomin  landscape,  edge  the  pond.  Graceful 
sprays  of  bamboo  cut  springing  curves  across  the  roof-lines,  and  soft 
trees,  of  the  oak  or  beech  order,  are  spotted  out  Into  the  mist  at 
the  back.  In  this  fine  stippling  of  leaves,  which  perfectly  gives  the 
silhouette  of  branches,  we  have  a  method  very  different  from  the 
cloudy  mesh  of  Kakki,  and  also  utterly  unlike  the  modern  Chinese 
bunjinga,  which  draws  with  a  certain  formal  touch  the  leaves  on  all 
trees,    no    matter    how    distant. 

But  the  finest  thing  in  the  picture,  and  the  most  salient,  is  the 
large  green  pine-tree — greens  and  soft  browns — that  rises  from  the 
foreground,  and  springs  high  up  in  the  air  over  the  roofs,  with  the 
spirally  resisting  and  tapering  force  of  a  rocket.  Here  individual  pine 
needles  are  drawn,  but  so  softly  that  you  can  hardly  see  them  without 
a  special  focus.  The  branches  have  a  firm  but  not  exaggerated  twist 
and  reach.  The  counter-point  of  the  crossing  pine  and  bamboo  lines 
Is  magnificent  ;  we  cannot  help  recalling  the  Sung  gentleman's  Idea  of 
manliness,  "  firm  as  a  pine,  yet  pliant  as  a  willow."  Here  both  trees, 
while  contrasting,  partake  each  of  the  quality  of  the  other.  The 
bamboo,  like  a  great  lady,  has  a  gentler  character  that  will  be  found 
stronger  when  it  comes  to  emergencies.  The  pine,  though  tough  in 
fibre,  as  beseems  a  statesman's  ability,  has  a  perfect  grace  of  finish  in 
accordance  with  lovely  manners.  The  feeling  of  life  in  this  place  Is  full 
of  that  subtle  charm  which  we  find  a  reflection  of  in  Ashikaga  gardens. 

Another  beautiful  Bayen  villa  shows  a  similar  pavilion  in  winter, 
but    drawn    at    an    angle.       The  bent    strings    of  the    bamboo    are    here 


1 

42       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

thicker  and  most  beautiful,  although  a  storm  has  recently  torn  away  ! 
some  of  the  thinning  leaves.  The  foreground  rocks  here  are  more 
angular  and  splintery.  A  beautiful  marble  bridge,  drawn  in  fine  per-  , 
spective,  crosses  a  creek.  A  great  leafless  plum,  of  the  "  dragon  "  shape, 
crouches  behind  the  bridge.  The  gentleman,  thickly  muffled  and 
wearing  a  white  cap,  gazes  out  thoughtfully  into  the  snow.  The  com- 
bination of  rustic  beauty  and  classic  elegance  in  such  pictures  is  almost 
beyond  belief.  It  is  indeed  the  new  classic,  new  to  us  Westerners, 
but  the  fine  old  classic  atmosphere  of  the  Eastern  world,  a  thing  to 
set  side  by  side  with    Greek   and  Renaissance    conditions. 

An  extraordinary  composition  of  Bayen's  shows  a  deep  mountain  , 
road,  seen  from  above,  and  leading  off  toward  a  military  gate  barrier 
in  the  distance.  A  large  tree  with  spiky  leaves,  and  covered  with 
mountain  frost,  crosses  the  picture  from  the  elevated  foreground. 
Against  its  powerfully  outlined  branches  the  hill-bounded  road  is  drawn 
in  soft  ink,  really  appearing  to  lie  some  five  hundred  feet  below. 
Here  is  a  masterly  perspective,  not  only  of  proportion,  but  of  texture  ; 
a   quality  which    Whistler  often    has  used. 

Drawn  in  freer  manner,  and  on  silk  now  very  dark  with  age,  is 
the  great  spiky  pine,  with  mountain  background  familiar  to  readers 
of  Kokkwa.  Here  the  style  becomes  consciously  more  like  that  of 
Kakei,  as  full  of  sweep  and  motion,  though  of  non-human  elements,  as 
a  Greek  frieze.  Here  is  a  veritable  portrait  of  a  tree  into  which  a 
Zen  priest  would  read  the  analogies  of  an  individual  human  soul.  Here, 
too,  are  the  kinds  of  rock  which  the  Ming  eclecticists  attempted  to 
revive  two  hundred  years  later,  but  succeeded  only  in  coarsely  travesting. 
Here  the  power  of  angle  is  as  great  (though  so  much  freer)  as  in 
an  Arabic  mosaic  ;  and  the  notan,  the  actual  gleam  of  the  wet  black 
against  luminous  mists,  a  new  beauty  which  Kakki  could  hardly  lay 
claim  to. 

We  come  now  to  Kakei,  whom  we  must  judge  to  be  taken,  all 
in  all,  the  greatest  landscape  artist  of  China,  yes — of  China  and 
Japan,  if  not  of  the  world.  He  held  the  golden  badge  under 
Neiso. 

Though  it  is  said  that  Kakei  studied  Kakki — and,  indeed,  he  did 
introduce  more  misty  efl^ects  than  did  his  friend  Bayen — yet  he 
made  a  decided  change  in  Chinese  landscape  style  :  the  "  In "  style 
that  the   Confucians    specially  scofl^  at — in  that  he  introduced  the  utmost 


Detail  of  Coast  Scicxk.      ]>y  Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei). 


Waterfall  in  a  Circle. 
By  Kakci  (Hsia  Kuei). 
Copied  by  Kano  Tanyu. 


Landscape  by  Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei). 

"  Where  my  pathway  came   to  an 

end  by  the  rising  waters  covered, 

I  sat  mc  flown  to  watch  the  shapes 

in  the  mist  that  over  it  hovered." 


Painting  of  the  Poet  Rinnasei  (Lin  Pu). 
By  Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei). 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  43 

decorative  splendour  of  notan^  or  dark  and  light  beauty.  He  made 
the  strong  shapes  of  his  touches  of  glowing  ink  "  look  as  if  they 
were  falling  in  drops."  This  is  "  suiboku,"  or  wet  ink,  such  as 
Bayen  also  used  in  his  mountain  tree.  Even  the  rocks  and  the  hills 
crumble  away  into  these  gleaming  touches,  where  the  contrast  of 
light  and  dark  spots  is  inconceivably  splendid.  All  that  is  involved 
in  our  finest  modern  black-and-white  work,  particularly  for  illustra- 
tion— the  charcoal  of  Millet,  and  flashing  darks  of  Manet,  the  almost 
lawless  strokes  of  Whistler,  making  tone  of  their  very  hatching — all 
this  is  only  experienced  along  the  road  where  Kakei  is  past 
master.  Therefore  Kakei  seems  to  us  splendidly  modern,  as  if  he 
were  a  hitherto  obscure  member  of  the  Barbizon  school  and  Whistler's 
secret  teacher.  Kakei  seldom  did  figures,  and  so  he  is  more  of  a 
landscape  specialist  even  than  Bayen.  There  are  times  when  he 
introduced  a  certain  rough  outline,  like  Bayen's  pine.  But  for  the 
most  part  his  work  is  either  in  "  wet "  masses  or  in  dry  touches 
I  like  the  most  splendid  etching.  His  fellow  critics  expressed  this  by 
saying  that  his  ink  "  ferments."  They  also  said  that  his  ink  alone 
looks  as  if  it  had  real  colour,  which  is  generally  true  of  a  fine 
piece  of  notan.  They  said,  too,  "his  wrinkles  are  rough,"  by  which 
they  mean  that  the  transitional  markings  on  rocks  and  trees  are  drawn 
not  with  fine  hair  lines,  as  even  in  the  rocks  of  landscape  villas, 
but  in  vivid  masses,  as  in  his  panorama  of  the  river.  Yet  form 
was  not  neglected,  only  made  less  hard.  This  very  point  which 
the  Chinese  scholars  condemn,  which  they  say  has  "killed  painting," 
is  the  very  point  in  which  he  is  so  modern,  which  brings  him  into 
contact  with    Western    art,  with   all  that   is   best    in   modern    Europe. 

It  is  on  record  that  Kakei  loved  to  paint  the  coast  views  of  the 
tide  flowing  into  the  Kientang  estuary,  just  beyond  the  city  of 
Hangchow.  One  piece  of  this  kind  has  come  down  to  us,  repre- 
senting a  pavilion  bridge  over  a  foreground  creek,  and  the  moun- 
tains melting  away  into  mist  on  the  other  side  of  the  bay.  Very 
fine  groups  of  trees,  pines,  oaks,  and  willows  rise  in  juicy  masses 
from  both  foreground  banks,  while  some  old  huts  lie  along  the  shore 
to  the  right.  The  tall  pines  are  just  like  those  which  we  see  about 
all  the  Ashikaga  temples,  such  as  Miyoshige  and  the  Tokugawa 
palaces  and  tombs,  as  at  Shiba  and  along  the  road  to  Nikko.  It  is 
the  Chinese    "male"    pine,    as  particularly    contrasted    with     the     short 

VOL.  II.  D 


44       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

spreading  Japanese  "  female "  pine  drawn  in  Tosa  landscape.  The 
whole  left  side,  backed  with  nearer  mountains,  is  typical  of  Kakei's 
silvery    notan.     Sesshu    has  studied    this    picture. 

Another  sketch  in  a  circle  shows  Kakei  himselr  watching  the  tide 
steam  up  over  the  flats.  It  comes  in  great  boiling  masses  ;  the  distance 
is  blurred  out  into  mist.  The  splendid  twisted  tree  above  is  typical  of 
Kakei's  notan.  This  well  illustrates  the  poem  which  Kakki  quotes  as 
a  poem  especially  liked  by  a  painter — 

"  Where  my  pathway  came  to  an  end  by  the  rising  waters  covered 

I  sat  me  down  and  watched  the  shapes  in  the  mist  that  over  it  hovered."  * 

Another  of  his  celebrated  pictures  was  a  long  roll  (probably  maki- 
mono)  showing  the  whole  panorama  ot  the  Yangtse  river,  its  rise  from 
small  streams,  its  passage  through  gorges,  and  its  mouth  filled  with 
commerce.  It  is  probably  an  old  copy  of  a  portion  of  this  which  we 
here  reproduce.  It  is  a  grand  geologic  panorama  of  precipitous  peaks, 
and  great  torn  sides  of  gravelly  hills.  It  is  like  an  alpine  study  by 
Turner.  The  river  curves  gracefully  between  two  groups  of  agitated 
hills,  passing  around  a  fine  low  rounded  hill  in  the  distance  which  it  has 
partly  worn  away.  The  breaks  and  twistings  of  the  strata  are  finely 
rendered  on  the  right.     The  drawing  of  trees  that  top   the  ridges  on  the 

*  Editor's  Note. — In  the  original,  pencil-written  manuscript,  Professor  Fenollosa  has  put 
a  small  marginal  note  beside  this  poem.      It  says  "  Explain  inner  meaning,  then  repeat." 

I  have  heard  him,  more  than  once,  in  lectures,  give  this  "inner  meaning,"  and  shall  now 
attempt  to  render  it  from  memory. 

The  human  figure  sitting  and  gazing  out  into  a  distance  that  is  blurred  with  mist 
typifies  the  sage — the  thinker,  the  philosopher, — who  does  not  blind  himself  to  the  social  and 
political  discords  of  his  day,  but  can  gaze  on  them  calmly,  knowing  them  to  be,  after  all,  just 
a  little  less  ephemeral  than  mists  or  rising  water.  The  word  "pathway"  is  intended  to  be 
taken  in  its  moral  sense,  as  the  path  of  virtue,  or,  less  conventionally,  that  pathway  through  the 
world,  which,  in  all  ages,  the  sane,  strong  soul  will  take.  This  shimmering  road — in  the 
picture  given — winds  out  through  the  middle  distance,  and  is  obliterated  by  the  incoming 
tide  of  haze, — perhaps  of  actual  rising  water, — for  floods  have,  at  all  times,  been  a  scourge 
in  China. 

The  seer,  gazing  outward,  sees  that  his  onward  progress  is  temporarily  obscured.  There 
is  no  use  plunging  forward  into  oblivion.  He  knows  that  it  is  a  phase  which  must  have  its 
brief  day  of  existence  ;  so,  instead  of  attempting  a  hopeless  combat,  he  "sits  him  down  to 
watch  the  shapes  in  the  mists  that  over  it  hover." 

By  "shapes"  he  doubtless  means  those  spectres  of  greed,  oppression  and  injustice  that 
always  accompany  a  period  of  unwise  administration.  There  will  be  other  forms  and  visions, 
too,  less  terrible.  Indeed,  the  philosopher  is  able  to  find  something  of  interest,  if  not  of 
amusement,  in  all  such  forms  of  mist.  This  is  a  type  of  mind  that  has  been  for  centuries  an 
ideal  one  to  both  Chinese  and  Japanese  thinkers. — M.  F. 


Flying  Stork.     At  Shokokuji 
Renshiren. 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  45 

left  is  so  splendidly  generalized  into  middle  distance  scale  as  to  give 
us  the  very  scratchy  fringe  which  a  photograph  of  a  similar  natural 
formation  near  Kamakura  reveals.  See  how  perfectly  the  silhouettes 
correspond,  and  how  incredible  and  unconventional  are  Kakei's  magic 
brush-drives  for  rendering  them  with  demoniac  power. 

Kakei  also  painted  wonderful  waterfalls  with  mist  drifting  across  the 
mountains,  waterfalls  for  all  the  world  like  Kakki's  word  description 
in  his  account  of  the  element  "  water."  One  of  the  finest  has  been  copied 
by  Tanyu.  The  gleam  of  sunlight  through  mist  and  from  water  can 
hardly  go  further. 

Kakei's  fine  painting  of  the  poet  Rinnasei,  wandering  with  his  familiar 
stork  over  the  pine-clad  upper  hills  is  magnificent  in  its  angular  spacing. 
His  central  clump  of  black  trees  sheltering  a  half-decayed  tea-house 
over-looking  a  river,  may  be  a  part  of  his  original  Yangtse  roll.  The 
hills  on  the  right  climb  like  the  steps  of  a  gigantic  ladder.  In  another 
piece,  a  similar  clump  of  trees,  but  more  curving,  dominates  a  pearly 
valley  filled  with  mist.  But  the  largest  panorama  that  has  come  down 
to  us,  in  what  is  probably  a  Yuan  or  an  early  Ming  copy,  is  a  splendid 
scene  along  the  coast  of  China,  where  a  walled  city  opens  upon  a  little 
bay  behind  a  cliff.  The  whole  coast  for  several  miles  is  thrown  back 
into^  misty  distance  by  a  bit  of  dark  etched  foreground,  showing  a  great 
prickly  pine  and  the  anchorage  of  laden  boats.  There,  a  mile  away 
over  the  water,  we  can  watch  every  detail  of  the  water-gate,  the  city 
rising  in  misty  terraces  behind  to  the  dominant  roofs  of  the  Yamens, 
the  boats  drawn  up  in  the  harbour,  the  rustic  temple  with  an  ancient  grove 
opening  to  the  left.  The  finest  passage,  perhaps,  is  the  bit  of  magnificent 
detail  in  a  little  outlying  suburb  where  the  mud  huts  of  a  few  fishermen 
crouch  beneath  great  leaning  willows.  The  enlargement  of  this  low 
marshy  hamlet,  with  its  varied  suggestions  of  character  in  trees,  shows 
a  magical  scratchy  touch,  almost  as  dry,  but  far  more  pliable  in  stroke, 
than  a  modern  Whistler  etching.  Indeed,  here  is  a  passage  of  land- 
scape impression  in  line  that  goes  beyond  anything  that  Europe  has 
ever  done. 

Among  the  many  associates  of  Bayen  and  Kakei  under  Neiso, 
are  several  whose  works  are  very  familiar  to  us.  Moyeki,  the 
great  painter  of  tigers,  we  have  already  noticed.  Then  there  was 
Baki,  the  elder  brother  of  Bayen  ;  and  Barin  and  Karin,  sons  of 
Bayen    and  Kakei.     Many  Barins  are  extant  in  Japan  ;    his  great  Fugen 

D  2 


46       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND  JAPANESE    ART 

at  Miyoshige  being  already  ascribed  as  design,  to  some  great  Tang 
painter  of  Godoshi  influence,  possibly  Ririoka.  Rinshonen  was  famous 
for  his  scenes  of  farming  and  weaving,  which  the  Kanos  have  closely 
followed.  He  used  rich  colour,  blue,  green,  and  red,  evidently  the 
source  of  the  more  violent  and  commonplace  colouring  of  degenerate 
Ming.      His   pictures   of  Chinese   children   are   known   in   Japan. 

Then  there  is  Risu  (Li  Sung),  who  was  once  a  carpenter,  but  who  rose 
to    high    rank    in    the    Academy,    showing    how    truly    democratic,    how 
genuinely  artistic,  was  the  competition  that  led  to  aesthetic  success.     He 
was  famous  for  painting  scenes  of  Seiko  Lake.     Also  Enjihei  (Yen  Tz'u- 
p'ing),  whose  work  resembles  Kakei,  but  is  squarer  and   more  angular. 
Kameiyen    (Hsia    Ming-yuan)    is    the     great     painter     of    architectural 
masses   beautifully   set    in    coloured    landscape.     We   show   here  a  small 
work    of    this    type,    which     somewhat    exaggerates     the     steepness     of 
mountains.      The    splendid    landscape-architecture    scenes    in    full    colour 
done    by    our    Kangakwai    artist    Kimura    in    1880-85    are    chiefly    based 
on   the  work   of  Kameiyen.      Lastly  we   must   speak   of  Riokai  (Liang 
Ch'ieh),    whose    more    violent    style    points    to    a    later    tendency.       He    1 
painted    figures    and    landscapes    whose    parts    seemed    to    fly    asunder 
in    great    splinters    wedged     off    by    lightning    strokes.        In    this    he    ' 
was     a     free     impressionist,     and    called     himself     "  Rio,    Son     of    the    i 
Wind."       He    represented    an    extremely    inspired    type    of   artist,    also    j 
known  to  Japan,  which  Mrs.  Fenollosa  has  attempted  to    depict  in  her   ; 
young     artist,    Tatsu,     in     "  The     Dragon     Painter."       Offended     with   1 
some    formality    at    the    palace,    probably    criticism    of    one    of    his    own   1 
escapades,   he    hung    up   his    badge    on    the    door   of  the   Academy,  and   j 
decamped.  j 

Of  those  artists  in  the  third  sub-period,  the  reign  of  Riso,  who  j 
followed  the  In  style  of  Ba  and  Ka  with  success,  we  know  many  ; 
such  as  Oki  (Wang  Hui),  who  has  given  us  villa  landscapes  like 
Bayen's,  but  coarser  in  feeling,  halfway  between  Bayen  and  Son- 
kuntaku,  of  Ming,  and  Hannanjin  (Fan  An-jen),  the  painter  of  fishes. 
Barin  (Ma-lin)  and  Karin  (Hsia-lin)  lived  into  this  age.  Renshiren 
has  left  us  the  magnificent  painting,  at  Shokokuji,  of  a  stork  flying 
downward  across  the  face  of  a  mountain.  This  most  magnificent  soaring 
bird,  with  spread  curves  of  wing  as  fine  as  Greek  sculpture,  has  been 
one  source  of  Japanese  bird-painting.  Barin  and  Karin  also  worked 
into   this  age. 


i 


Palace  in  Circle. 

By  Kameij-en  (Hsia  Ming-yuan. 


Ideal  Study  of  Chinese  Palace. 
Bv  Kimura. 


i 


Copy  of  Painting.     By  Riokai  (Liang  Ch'ieh). 


IDEALISTIC   ART    IN    CHINA  47 

But  the  most  characteristic  work  of  this  third  sub-period  is  the  priestly 
style  of  Mokkei  (Mu  Ch'i)  and  his  followers,  the  Zen  priests,  who  were 
not  members  of  the  Academy,  but  who  carried  the  passionate  impression 
of  Riokai  to  greater,  but  less  violent  and  exaggerated,  heights.  These 
men  lived  in  the  picturesque  temples,  set  on  every  peak  of  vantage, 
where  superb  prospects  swept  away  under  their  eyes,  and  they  could 
work  undisturbed  among  rustic  suburbs  for  the  whole  day.  The 
date  of  Mokkei  is  not  given  in  the  Chinese  books,  which  treat  him 
cavalierly  as  a  rough  unworthy  artist  ;  this,  of  course,  because  he 
was  that  abomination  of  ritualistic  scholars,  a  Buddhist  priest.  We 
suppose  that  he  must  have  overlapped  from  the  Neiso  period  into  the 
Riso.  There  is  not  much  trace  of  such  work  under  the  former, 
except   Riokai's. 

Of  Mokkei  personally  we  know  almost  nothing.  But  his  work 
speaks  eloquently  for  him.  He  is  the  arch-impressionist  of  impressionists 
in  ink — he  never  used  colour — he  does  magnificently  the  very  things 
which  the  decadent  Confucians  of  Ming  and  Tang  try  to  do  clumsily 
and  with  "literary  taste."  His  mist  effects  are  far  finer  and  saner 
than  Beigensho's— his  outline  strokes  are  few,  and  "softly-splintery," 
if  such  a  term  is  not  a  contradiction.  They  are  never  angular  like 
Riokai's,  rather  curving  in  outline,  much  more  blurry  than  Kakei's, 
line  and  clouding  mix  up  together  by  a  real  wash-out  of  the  brush  ; 
and  the  accents  of  dark  are  made  by  rapid  oval-shaped  spots  dropped 
upon  the  silk  by  a  vertical  side  touch  of  the  soft  brush.  It  does  not 
have  the  superb  silvery  notan  of  Kakei  ;  its  noian  is  even  sometimes  a 
little  weak.  But  for  poetical  impression  of  nature,  pure,  flowing,  as 
the  Chinese  say  "  river-like,"  there  is  nothing  to  surpass  him.  His 
work  came  in  with  the  great  inrush  of  Zen  in  early  Ashikaga  days. 
All  the  great  Japanese  artists,  including  Sesshu  and  Noami,  have  built 
upon  him.  Kano  Motonobu,  in  his  softer  style,  grows  out  of  him. 
The  whole  Kinkakuji  school  of  Kioto  follows  him.  The  absence  of 
almost  all  literary  account  of  this  whole  priestly  school,  of  which  Mokkei 
was  the  centre,  must  not  be  taken  as  proving  its  lack  of  importance — but 
only  that  it  was  a  supreme  Hangchow  importance  which  all  later 
Confucians  have  resented  or  ignored.  It  is '  only  among  the  few  great 
Buddhist  circles  in  China,  like  the  Island  of  Kwannon,  that  his  work  will 
be  understood.  The  white  porcelain  statues  of  Kwannon  are  sculptures 
based  upon  his   pictorial    design.      The   Japanese,  being    fortunately  free 


48       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

from  the  Confucian  bias,  in  Ashikaga  days  at  least,  could  adopt  his 
school  at  its   real  worth,  as   the  very  core  of  Zen  feeling. 

Among  Mokkei's  well-known  works  in  Japan  are  a  small  group  of 
sparrows  on  a  spray,  and  a  set  of  herons  with  lotos,  of  which  are  shown 
a  heron  in  flight  beating  downward  against  a  heavy  slant  of  rain  that 
bends  over  the  lotos  plants,  and  tears  away  their  petals.  Another  is 
a  fine  moist  drawing  of  a  hen  and  chicks,  done  in  a  soaking  touch 
upon  sized  paper,  in  the  very  style  which  the  later  Bunjinga  have 
abused.  It  is  quite  interesting  to  see  that  the  man  whom  they  have 
abused  most  is  technically  far  more  like  them  than  those,  like  Omakitsu, 
whom  they  have  claimed  as  their  exemplars.  The  notan  of  these 
chicks — white,  black  and  grey — as  they  nestle  among  their  mother's 
feathers,  is  charming.  So  is  the  notan  of  the  grapes  upon  the  vine 
hanging  from  above.  A  very  striking  figure  piece  with  landscape 
accompaniment  is  an  old  wizened  Rakan,  wrapped  in  a  single  white 
blanket,  who  sits  in  trance  high  on  a  rocky  ledge  upon  the  side  of  a 
mountain.  Obedient  to  his  will,  a  great  snake  has  crept  out  of  the 
crevices,  encircling  the  figure  in  its  coils,  and  now  raises  its  head  with 
open  mouth  in  the  saint's  lap.  The  valley  below  is  hidden  by  clouds, 
but  the  figure  seems  to  bask  in  warm  sunlight.  Altogether  the  impression 
of  such  work  is  like  Millet's  fine  monochrome  studies  in  charcoal. 
This  effect  is  still  more  given  in  Mokkei's  drawing  of  Daruma's  first 
Zen  followers  in  the  garb  of  woodmen  bearing  axes  and  faggots.  We 
have  one  pure  landscape  by  Mokkei,  a  range  of  misty  mountains,  which 
far  surpasses  in  softness  and  condensation  any  bunjinga  piece.  There 
is  not  a  separate  touch  or  accent  in  it,  nothing  but  an  outlined  wash, 
melting  out   into  clouds. 

The  largest  paintings  by  Mokkei  are  a  set  of  five  on  silk,  which 
are  the  chief  treasures  of  the  Daitokoji  temple  in  Kioto.  One  is  ot 
two  great  storks  and  bamboo  pipes.  Another  of  a  tiger  scowling 
defiance  at  the  rain.  A  third  shows  the  head  of  a  huge  draoron  mingled 
with  cloud.  A  fourth  shows  a  mother  and  baby  monkey  of  the  long- 
armed  hairy  Chinese  species,  perched  near  the  top  of  a  great  vine-hung 
tree  that  seems  to  overhang  an  abyss.  The  foliage  of  the  tree,  as 
also  the  vine  leaves,  are  done  in  the  softest  blurry  scratches,  more 
irregular  and  "abandoned,"  as  the  Chinese  say,  than  Kakei.  In  com- 
parison with  the  characters  of  handwriting,  Bayen's  style  conforms  more 
to     the     square     formal     character    which     has    hardened     into     printing, 


Painting  of  a  JNIountain   Hermit. 
By  Riokai  (Liang  Ch'ieh). 


I 


Rakan  (or  Arhat)  with  Sxake. 
By  Mokkei  (Mu-Ch'i). 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN    CHINA  49 

Mokkei's  to  the  running  hand  ot  free,  connected  words  used  In  episto- 
lary composition,  the  so-called  "  grass-hand."  Kakei  stands  between 
the  two.  These  four  paintings  have  been  an  important  source  of  much 
in   the  early    Ashikaga    styles,  including    the  work  of  Sesshu. 

But  the  fifth  of  these  Mokkei  paintings  at  Daitokuji  merits  a  para- 
graph to  itself ;  for  it  is  probably  the  greatest  Chinese  composition 
that  has  come  down  to  us,  with  the  exception  of  Godoshi's  and 
Ririomin's.  This  is  the  great  white  Kwannon,  seated  in  a  rocky  cave, 
with  an  inflow  of  water  washing  at  her  feet.  A  crystal  vase  with  a 
sprig  of  willow  (both  sympathetic  with  the  elements  of  water  and  ether, 
which  Kwannon  symbolizes)  stands  on  a  rock  at  her  left.  From  the 
overhanging  roof  of  the  cave  rough  weeds  droop.  The  space  is  blurred 
with  thin  white  vapours.  The  silvery  water  swells  up  to  the  rock, 
lazily  and  without  sound.  The  one  strong  note  of  accent  in  the  picture 
is  given  by  a  small  spray  of  black  bamboo  near  the  seat  at  her  right, 
bamboo  drawn  with  the  force  of  the  earlier  Yohoshi.  The  most  beautiful 
portion,  however,  is  Kwannon's  gracious  figure,  sweetly  bending  forward, 
as  if  listening  with  inner  ear  to  the  voices  of  mariners  in  distress  that 
come  in  over  the  sea.  For  Kwannon  is  especially  the  Mother  of 
Waters,  the  Providence  who  guards  the  travellers  upon  ships.  Here 
the  goddess  is  plainly  feminine,  of  the  white  type  from  which  come 
the  later  porcelains.  And,  in  the  all-comprehensive  Zen  symbolism, 
we  may  say  that  she  here  typifies,  in  a  general  way,  the  great  human 
and  sub-human  category  of  "  motherhood."  Indeed  it  is  true  that 
millions  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  have  for  seven  centuries  looked  up 
to,  and  prayed  to,  such  superhuman  types,  with  the  same  sort  of 
passionate  confidence  in  the  divine  motherhood  that  the  millions  of 
European  believers  have  to  the  Holy  Virgin,  Mother  of  Christ.  The 
early  Jesuit  missionaries  took  advantage  of  this  analogy,  and  readily 
established  for  Chinese  converts  a  spiritual  identity  between  the  two, 
iust  as  they  did  between  "God  the  Father"  and  the  Chinese  "Emperor 
of  Heaven."  The  analogy  between  Christ  and  Buddha  has  impressed 
the  imagination  of  travellers  in  all  ages.  The  Arabs,  who  believed 
in  neither,  carelessly  identified  them.  These  analogies  should,  to  a 
broad  mind,  whether  Catholic  or  Protestant,  be  beautiful  illustrations 
of  how  the  highest  truths  find  natural  adumbration  in  all  pure  souls. 
Especially  is  it  beautiful  to  find  an  Asiatic  nation  joining  in  the  worship 
of  the    spirit    of  womanhood. 


50       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

And  assthetically  the  realization  is  worthy  of  the  conception.  The 
purity  and  weakness  of  the  rorm,  the  beautiful  lines  like  a  marble  statue, 
the  splendid  dominance  of  the  hood  and  crown,  and  the  sweetness  of  the 
face,  stand  as  high  for  a  world's  assthetic  type  as  do  the  great  Madonnas 
of  Italian  work,  say  the  sweet  half-length  Bellini  at  the  Venice  Academia. 
In  1886  I  took  our  own  John  LaFarge  to  Daitokoji  to  see  this  work. 
The  old  priest  was  delighted  to  have  it  specially  brought  out  for  such  a 
sage.  Mr.  LaFarge,  devout  Catholic  as  he  is,  could  hardly  restrain  a 
bending  of  the  head  as  he  muttered,  "  Raphael."  Indeed,  the  Mokkei 
Kwannon  challenges  deliberate  comparison  with  the  sweetest  mother 
types  of  the  great  Umbrian.  It  is  a  revelation  to  see  photographs  of 
the  two  side  by  side. 

How  original  a  thing  the  great  Kwannon  really  is  may  be  seen  by 
comparing  the  Enriuhon  and  Godoshi  types,  and  even  the  Ririomin 
female  Rakan.  There  the  dignity  is  masculine,  cosmic,  the  might  of 
Providence  in  general.  The  lines  of  Ririomin  even  are  rather  splendid 
than  tender.  This  for  the  first  time  in  art  realizes  the  utmost  beauty 
of  condensation  and  impression  in  pure  line  used  to  express  the  most 
tender  divinity  of  womanhood.  The  subject  was  attempted  by  many 
followers  of  various  dates,  both  Chinese  and  Japanese,  but  never 
equalled.* 

■■■■Editor's  Note. — Among  the  things  which  the  writer  or  this  book  had  intended 
to  supply,  during  his  eagerly  anticipated  "next  visit  to  Japan,"  was  a  complete 
account,  from  the  lips  of  the  venerable  Kano  Tomonobu,  of  the  methods  of  copying 
which  had  been  used  by  the  noble-artist  race  of  Kanos — old  Tomonobu  being  the 
last.  When  I  reached  Japan  in  the  spring  of  1910,  I  made  the  attempt  to  get  this 
material,  and  was  given  all  possible  aid  both  by  Tomonobu  and  the  scholar  who 
interpreted  his  words.  Dr.  Ariga  Nagao.  I  feel  it  to  be  but  a  shadow  of  the  thing 
which  Ernest  Fenollosa,  with  the  same  opportunities,  would  have  written.  But  here  I 
give  it  as  best  I  may  : 

"  There  are  two  ways  in  which  my  ancestors  have  copied  masterpieces," 
old  Tomonobu  began,  "and  I  will  first  speak  of  the  best  and  the  most  difficult. 
It  is  called  'Age  Utsu-shi'  (freely  translated  this  would  mean,  the  honourable, 
uplifted  way  of  copy-painting),  and  was  applied  only  to  pictures  which  could 
be  rolled,  such  as  kakemono  and  makimono.  The  copying  was  done  usually 
upon  the  floor,  or  a  very  low  desk.  The  masterpiece  to  be  copied  was  rolled 
quite  tightly,  showing  only  a  few  inches  at  the  bottom.  In  the  same  way 
the  kakemono  to  be  painted,  though  still  a  rectangle  of  untouched  silk,  was 
rolled,    exposing   the    same    width    of    space.       Little    by   little    the    artist    copied. 


The  Famous  Kwannon.     By  Mokkei  (Mu  Ch'i). 
Temple  of  Daitokuji. 


1 


i 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  51 

A  host  of  priestly  Zen  artists  followed  Mokkei  to  the  end  of  Sung, 
and  even  later.  Of  these  one  of  the  greatest  is  Mokuan  (Mu  An),  whose 
lines  are  thicker  and  more  crumbly.  Mommukan  gives  us  almost  ghastly 
impression  with  the  paleness  of  his  washes.  Indara  continues  the  wild- 
ness  of  Riokai  with  the  softness  of  Mokkei.  His  human  hair  is  a 
soft  washed  blur,  without  lines,  but  he  uses  sharp  black  touches  on  eye 
and  mouth.  Other  followers,  who  may  not  have  been  priests,  and 
some  of  whom  were  members  of  the  Academy,  are  Konenki,  whose 
touch  upon  his  misty  landscapes  technically  foreshadows  bunjinga  (though 
hated  by  Bunjin  and  Chin  Shoo,  the  great  painter  of  dragons,  who 
was  probably  an  Academic  contemporary  of  Mokkei,  about  1250.  Shoo 
took  his  degree  in  Tanpei,  1234-6).  He  painted  wonderfully,  in 
the  soft  ink  style,  the  motions  of  turbulent  water  and  clouds,  and 
their  familiar  spirit,  the  dragon.  One  of  his  many  pieces,  owned 
in  Japan,  shows  a  dragon  coming  head-on  out  of  a  dark  cave  to 
join  his  mate,  who  is  already  disporting  outside,  in  a  storm-cloud  on 
the  right. 

If  this  pretended  to  be  a  complete  history  of  Chinese  art,  it 
might  be  considered  requisite,  for  form's  sake,  to  interpolate  separate 
chapters  upon  the  art  of  the  two  dynasties  that  followed  Sung, 
the  short  Yuan  (Gen),  and  the  long  Ming  (Ming).  But  this 
would  be  to  throw  their  aesthetic  values  quite  out  of  proportion. 
It  is  true  that  much  worthy  Chinese  art  was  produced  in  the 
fourteenth    and    the    early    fifteenth    centuries,   but    almost    nothing    that 

and  it  was  not  only  mechanical,  but  'thought'  copying,  requiring  both 
intelligence  and  skill.  This  was  one  of  the  chief  ways  of  training  a  beginner, 
though,  of  course,  he  wasn't  given  difficult  masterpieces  to  copy.  As  long  as 
Kano  Tomonobu  was  retained  as  a  teacher  in  the  Tokyo  Fine  Arts  School, 
he  insisted  upon  enforcing  this  practice.  Now,  he  says,  it  is  discarded.  The 
pupils  use  modern  transparent  paper,  '  killing  the  force.' 

"The  second  way,  called  '  Suki-Utsushi '  or  'dark-copying,'  is  used  chiefly 
for  very  old,  discoloured  paintings,  and  for  flat-mounted  panels.  The  paper  on 
which  the  picture  was  to  be  transferred  was  soaked  in  a  weak  lye  water,  which 
made  it  slighdy  translucent.  It  is  then  laid  upon  the  painting,  and  only  the 
boldest  oudines  traced.  It  is  then  taken  away,  and  all  the  smaller  details  filled 
in  by  the  eye  alone.  The  famous  Mokkei  Kwannon,  a  splendid  copy  of  which 
is  in  the  Boston  Museum,  was  transcribed  in  this  way,  and  the  process  took 
many  weeks." 


52       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

is  epochal.  The  greatest  days  of  Chinese  creation  are  over  ;  the 
intensity  of  occasional  flashes,  in  poetry  and  painting,  does  not 
quite  take  the  place  of  form,  now  decaying.  If  art  were  a  Vas- 
arish  chronicling  of  names  and  popular  stories,  one  artist-life  might 
seem  to  be  as  good  a  fact  to  record  as  another,  and  so  down  to  the 
end.  But  that  is  not  a  history  of  Art.  Art  is  supreme  beauty,  and 
thus  is  essentially  epochal.  The  long  weak  periods,  especially  those 
of  imitation  and  decay,  merit  only  passing  notice,  except  for  the  special 
historical  student.  Art  is  like  a  great  island  world,  of  which  all  but 
the  tall  peaks  are  submerged  below  a  very  useful  sea  of  oblivion. 
Below  the  level  marked  by  strong  creation  the  million  facts  are  tire- 
some and  unimportant,  and  to  be  visited  only  by  the  diver  well 
equipped  with  apparatus  to  keep  him  from  stifling.  Those  who  love 
to  parade  mediocrity  as  meriting  equal  notice  with  genius,  have  their 
aesthetic  perception  already   stifled. 

The  most  important  use  of  a  study  of  Yuan,  and  especially  of 
Ming  art,  is  to  trace  the  line  of  connection  between  Sung  art  in  China 
and  Ashikaga  art  in  Japan — both  highly  creative.  And  therefore  I 
have  decided  to  include  these  intermediary  arts,  but  only  in  the  form 
of  appendix,    as    it    were,    to    this    Thirteenth    Chapter. 

The  end  of  Sung  formed  part  of  the  most  wide-spread  tragedy 
in  human  history — the  Mongol  Conquest.  It  was  not,  like  Alexander's 
Conquest,  on  the  whole  human  and  constructive.  It  devastated  the 
world  for  the  time  being,  from  the  shores  of  the  Danube  and  the 
Baltic  to  the  China  Sea.  And  yet  it  did  one  great  thing  which 
neither  Han  nor  Tang  had  been  able  to  do :  it  brought  China  into 
direct  contact  with  Europe.  During  the  short  Mongol  dynasty  in 
Han  (1280  to  1368)  Chinese  princes  were  received  by  the  papal 
court  at  Rome,  and  Franciscan  missionaries  had  established  some 
forty  bishoprics  in  the  Celestial  Kingdom.  In  this  brief  wave  of 
overlapping  waters,  Marco  Polo  visited  China,  saw  Hangchow,  and 
has  left  us  the  one  great  and  precious  account  of  mediaeval  China 
that  is  at  all  trustworthy.  After  the  Yuan  days,  no  European 
penetrated  China  again  for  two  hundred  years,  and  during  that 
interval    the    last    traces    of  Sung    feeling    had    been    destroyed. 

Ghengis  Khan,  the  Scourge  of  the  World,  had  become  chief  ot 
the  restless  Mongols  in  1206.  By  12 13  he  had  already  attacked  the 
Kins,  the    inveterate    enemies  of  Hangchow,     now    long    entrenched    in 


riT-.  '^;-,^-^^^. 


Music  without  Instruments." 
By  Gessan  (Yiich  San). 


■^^flWSPW 


I 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN    CHINA  53 

Northern  China.  By  1227  Ghengis  had  begun  to  conquer  the 
Saracens  on  the  West.  In  1234,  the  successors  of  Ghengis  had  de- 
stroyed Kin,  and  begun  to  invade  Southern  China.  It  shows  the 
extreme  toughness  of  even  this  aesthetic  Hangchow  civilization  that  it 
was  able  to  stave  off  the  world  scourge  for  fifty  years.  Slowly  the 
Mongols,  blasted  away  from  the  main  body,  walled  city  after  city. 
One  is  hardly  proud  of  the  ract  that  the  European  Polo  directed  the 
ordnance  of  the  besiegers.  The  civilization  of  ages  was  burned  up 
by  Venetian  powder.  In  1276  the  Imperial  family  had  to  flee  from 
Hangchow.  In  1280  all  semblance  of  a  separate  government  had 
ceased,  and  the  Mongol  conqueror,  called  by  the  Japanese  Seiso,  and 
by    us  Kublai  Khan,    reigned    as    the  first    Emperor  of  Yuan. 

And  now  happened  a  significant  act.  As  ever,  when  barbarians 
had  seized  the  reigns  of  government,  the  literary  Confucians  flocked 
to  their  Court  with  offers  of  help.  And,  indeed,  services  were  needed 
by  native  ofiicials  who  understood  the  machinery  of  administration. 
The  Mongols  had  less  organizing  capacity  even  than  the  Kins.  It 
was  hardly  the  native  Hangchow  patriots,  idealists  and  reformers 
who  would  ofl^er  or  be  accepted.  No,  the  unregenerated  Bourbon 
Confucians  seized  their  opportunity,  and  in  the  very  next  year, 
128  r,  the  books  of  all  the  "heretical"  Hangchow  philosophers,  Teishi, 
Shishi  and  Shukei,  were  proscribed  and  burned.  This,  of  course, 
meant  a  return  to  the  deadliest  formalism,  and  Chinese  variability,  or 
power  of  reconstruction,  was  lost  for  ever — at  least  down  to  the 
twentieth  century. 

Chinese  art  of  the  Yuan  dynasty  must  be  briefly  described  as 
falling  under  three  separate  categories,  schools,  or  movements.  One 
is  a  diverting  of  the  technical  powers  of  professional  artists  trained 
in  the  historic  schools  to  purveying  to  their  Mongol  masters  the 
only  phase  of  art  they  could  well  understand,  namely  realism.  To 
copy  in  bright  colours  the  trees  and  flowers  of  the  Mongol  gardens, 
the  animals  they  loved,  particularly  the  horses,  and  the  details  of 
coarse,  material  life  among  the  Mongols  themselves  ;  these  were  their 
two  main  categories.  And  in  this  they  brought  little  originality  into 
play.  The  more  realistic  masters  of  late  Tang  and  early  Sung  were 
j  the  deserted  quarries  in  which  they  picked  up  old  stones.  No 
1;  one  denies  the  beauty  of  their  execution,  but  all  trace  of  Zen 
idealism     has     become     lost.        It     was     the     horse     pictures     of    Soba, 


54       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

Kankan,  and  Ririomin  that  they  imitated  :  the  figure  work  of  the 
secular  styles  of  Seikinkoji  and  Ganki,  and  especially  the  flower 
work  of  Joki,  Kosen  and  Chosho.  The  great  masters  of  this  school 
are  such  as  Chosugo  (Chao  Tzu-ang),*  Sen-shunkio  (Chien  Shun-ch'ii), 
and  Gessan,  who  may  be  called  "eclectic  realists."  Their  figure  work  is 
often  very  fine  in  line,  and  shows  groups  of  men  and  women  enjoying 
themselves  in  gardens,  the  women  doing  all  the  serving.  The  figures 
of  these  women  have  become  traditional  and  doll-like,  with  far  less 
freedom  and  considerably  less  sweetness  than  the  women  of  Sung. 
The  lines  become  almost  as  fine  as  a  hair,  but  the  proportions  of  the 
body  are  mostly  less  anatomical  and  sculptural  than  the  earlier  work. 
It  was  not  only  material  scenes  they  painted,  but  such  biographical 
and  historical  scenes  as  the  Confucians  recommended  by  way  of 
example  or  warning.  Gessan's  great  scene,  for  instance,  where  a  group 
of  gentlemen  listen  rapturously,  with  shut  eyes,  to  imaginary  music, 
which  the  central  figure  seems  to  play  upon  a  table,  where  the  lute, 
non-existent,  is  merely  understood,  is  almost  a  mockery  of  idealism. 
The  figure  with  the  bamboo  rod  is  finely  typical  of  Yuen  work,  but 
is  a  weakened  Ririomin.  Shunkio's  and  Sugo's  portraits  are  delicate 
and  fine,  but  are  simply  realistic.  Two  aristocratic  ladies  walking  in 
a  garden  make  us  think  of  the  courtly  school  of  Van  Dyck.  The 
great  supper  scene  by  Fujo,  the  brother  of  Sugo,  which  recalls  the 
feats  of  degenerate  Roman  days,  is  so  splendid  in  the  line  compo- 
sition of  its  four  main  figures,  in  spite  of  the  hair  lines,  as  to  lead  us 
to  believe  it  a  weakened  copy  from  Ririomin,  with  a  screen  in  the 
background,  whose  fine  early  Sung  landscape  was  probably  taken 
by  Ririomin  from  Risei.  I  have  already  given  this  in  Chapter  XII. 
In  landscape  Sugo  sometimes  tries  the  freer  ink  form  of  Sung,  but 
with   no   real    spirit. 

It  is  still  fine,  but  lacks  the  ultimate  inspiration.  Shukei  in  land- 
scape mostly  follows  the  colour  style,  descended  in  long  line  through 
Rishikin,  and  indeed  with  a  conscious  imitation  of  Tang  awkwardness, 
rather  than  the  Sung  perfection  of  a  Kameiyen.  These  artists  were  in 
good  part  antiquarians.  But  in  flowers  and  detached  branches  they  did 
their  best  work.  Here,  however,  they  were  little  more  than  imitators 
of  Joki  and    his    fellows.     There   is    greater    hardness   about   their  style, 

*  Chao  TsLi-ang  is  another  name  for  Chao  Mcng-fu.     Chicn  Shim-ch'ii  is  another   name 
for  Chicn  Hsuan. — Professor  Petrucci. 


Crumpled  Camellias. 

By  Chien  Hsuan  (Yiian). 


A  Grove  of  Bamboo  swayed  by  a  passing 
Storm.     By  Gen.  Danshidzui. 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN    CHINA  S5 

like  a  coloured  photograph — witness  the  fine  camellia  of  Shunkio.  The 
herons  by  Chokuboku  is  probably  based  on  a  Sung  original.  There  is 
always  the  doubt  whether  their  best  work  is  not  almost  always  a  thin 
copy.  One  must  add  that  in  this  day,  design  upon  porcelain  utensils 
begins,  as  in  raised  relief  of  clouds  and  dragons.  The  fine  pottery  of 
Sung  is  becoming  neglected. 

The  second  notable  school  of  Yuan  is  a  Confucian  revolt  from  the 
hard  realistic  In  style  of  the  court  painters  to  the  Mongols.  There 
still  lingers  among  the  Confucian  artists,  particularly  in  the  provinces, 
the  tradition  of  great  Sung  scholars  who  were  also  poets  and  painters, 
like  Toba  and  Beigensho — men  of  high  individuality  and  independence, 
who  could  never  be  made  slaves  to  a  system.  This  was  the  better 
element  in  the  Confucian  ranks,  the  provincial  element  ;  the  salt  of 
independence,  savouring  the  insipid  Mongol  feast.  They  took  for  their 
model  the  work  of  Beigensho  himself,  who  had  left  soft,  landscape,  cloudy 
effects  in  a  mannered  touch.  These  new  men,  of  whom  Mogiokkan, 
Choyen  and  Randenshuku  are  three  geniuses,  took  their  hint  from  the 
literati  artists  of  Sung,  but  out  of  it  developed  a  far  more  pictorial  form, 
and  therefore  came  nearest  to  making  an  epoch.  They  made  a  point 
of  working  upon  soft  silk,  or  even  satin,  where  there  could  be  no 
sizing  to  manipulate  their  ink  upon,  and  could  rely  only  upon  manual 
dexterity  to  overlap,  soaking  touch  upon  touch  until  softness  and 
gradation  should  arise  from  the  many  superpositions.  This  dryer 
technique,  combined  with  Beigensho's  formal  stroke  and  its  modi- 
fications, make  up  what  is  peculiar  in  their  method.  But,  beyond  this, 
they  have  magnificent  conceptions,  albeit  in  a  narrow  range.  They  show 
great  mist-soaked  sides  of  mountains,  gleaming  in  the  sun,  where 
accuracy  of  form  becomes  of  slight  importance  compared  to  notan  of 
mass.  The  masses  themselves,  too,  are  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
angular  masses  of  a  mosaic,  being  hardly  traceable  in  curve,  suggested 
outline,  or  shape.  So  that  the  style  becomes  largely  limited  to  the  im- 
pression of  the  formlessness  of  strong  light  gleaming  through  mist. 
Within  these  limits  it  is  really  beautiful,  even  grand.  This  is  the  only 
school  of  bunjinga  that  was  ever  creative.  It  accompanied  a  new  mild 
school  of  landscape  poetry.     But  the  names,  "bunjinga"*  or  "Southern 

*  "Bunjingwa"  is  a  Japanese  transcription  of  the  Chinese  term  "wenjen-hua,"  or 
literary  painting.  These  caligraphic  paintings  should  not  be  confounded  with  the  style 
called  "The  Southern  School." — Professor  Petrucci. 


56       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

School,"  were  not  yet  used.  This  school  did  not  become  known  to 
Japan  until  the  eighteenth  century. 

But  it  was  neither  of  these  schools  that  forms  the  proper  transition 
from  Southern  Sung  to  the  Japanese  Ashikaga.  The  bridge  lay  in  the 
persistent  work  of  the  Zen  temples,  still  scattered  chiefly  throughout 
Southern  China  and  along  the  Eastern  coast  of  Go,  then,  long  before, 
in  pre-Tang  times,  in  closest  maritime  relations  with  Japan.  Here, 
the  technical  knowledge  and  fine  spirit  derived  by  priest  and  In  painters 
from  Hangchow  could  not  be  wholly  lost,  and  two  or  three  great  Zen 
painters  can  be  regarded  as  one  extension  of  creative  Hangchow  into 
the  fourteenth  century.  This  spirit  was  also  preserved  in  the  far 
central  West  (Shoku  or  Szechuan). 

One  of  the  greatest  of  these  men  is  the  landscapist  and  bamboo 
painter,  Danshidzui,  whose  notan^  Mokkeish,  is  almost  as  brilliant  as 
Kakei's.  His  grove  of  bamboo,  swayed  by  a  passing  storm,  through 
which  sunlight  sifts  are  like  pure  silver  to  the  gold  of  Sung.  The  line 
is  just  a  little  more  mannered  and  violent  than  tl\at  of  Sung.  The 
other  great  man  is  the  figure  painter  Ganki.  His  powerful  pieces 
share  in  a  somewhat  thickened  Sung  line.  His  great  Zen  works  com- 
prise the  wild  hermit  genius  and  the  wild  servants  of  Buddha's  temple, 
Kanzan  and  Jittoku.  His  great  portraits  of  the  last  are  owned  by 
Mr.  Kawasaki,  of  Kobe.  His  great  Takkai  Sennin  blowing  his  own 
likeness  out  of  his  mouth  in  the  form  of  breath  ("projecting  the 
double ")  is  at  Daitokuji  of  Kioto.  Here  we  have  a  splendid  rich 
suggestion  of  purplish  colour  in  the  flesh.  It  is  like  a  combination  of 
Mokkei  and  the  great  Zen  painter  of  Tang,  Zengetsu  Daishi,  only 
with  less  volcanic  intensity  than  either.  There  is  something  of  dis- 
torted imagination  about  it  which  becomes  a  matter  of  course  in  Ming. 

The  Dynasty  of  the  Mongols  was  finally  extinguished  by  a  great 
native  Chinese  uprising,  not  unlike  that  which  was  attempted  against 
the  Manchus  in  the  nineteenth  century  by  the  Taipings.  The  dis- 
turbances began  as  early  as  1348,  but  gathered  headway  when  Gensho, 
a  military  genius  who  had  risen  from  humble  origin,  took  command 
in  1355.  A  bitter  struggle  of  thirteen  years  put  him  in  control  of 
Peking  in  1368,  when  Gensho  was  proclaimed  Emperor  and  founder 
of  the  new  Ming  dynasty.  The  revolt  had  come  from  the  South, 
and  Gensho  decided  to  keep  his  capital  at  Nanking,  the  old  famous 
seat    of  Southern    Chinese    power    of  the    Liang    in    the    sixth    century. 


# 


Takkai  Sennin.     By  Ganki  (Yen  Hui). 


Portrait  of  the  Wild  Hermit-lad  Kanzan.     By  Ganki  (Yen  Hui). 
Collection  of  Mr.  Kawasaki,  Hiogo,  Japan. 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    CHINA  57 

Now  Nanking  became  capital  for  a  second  time  after  eight  centuries, 
the  third  Southern  capital  counting  Hangchow.  No  dynasty  ever  began 
with  more  enthusiasm  and  prospects,  for  it  was  a  clear  reaction  of  Sung 
ideas  toward  re-establishment.  Everyone  believed  that  a  second 
Hangchow  had  come,  and  that  poetry  would  again  rise  to  divine 
heights.  But,  alas,  the  disillusion  !  It  was  too  late  !  The  Gen 
debauch  had  stiffened  and  hardened  the  Chinese  mind.  The  Sung 
philosophy  could  hardly  be  re-established,  and  there  arose  no  trans- 
cendent genius  to  inaugurate  a  new  one.  It  was  either  anarchy  or 
Confucianism  ;  nothing  else  short  of  European  science  could  be  con- 
ceived, and  Europe  was  shut  off  by  a  terrific  hatred  due  to  the 
Mongol's  patronage  of  Marco  Polo  and  Christian  missionaries.  Un- 
fortunately, these  had  always  shown  themselves  pro-Mongol  and  anti- 
Chinese.  Polo,  who  lived  in  China  some  eighteen  years,  never  took 
the  pains  to  speak  or  read  the  Chinese  language.  So  Ming  was  a 
purely  Chinese  reaction  which  went  to  its  doom  because  the  very  evil 
foreseen  by  Oanseiki  in  early  Sung  had  come  to  pass.  He  knew  the 
Chinese  must  then  decide  whether  to  be  scientific  or  formalistic,  and 
he  knew  that  formalism  would  eventually  reach  a  point  so  far  down 
that  thought  would  become  incapable  of  reconstructing  itself.  Such 
indeed   it  became   in  later   Ming. 

The  first  fifty,  or  even  the  first  hundred  years  of  Ming,  however, 
produced  some  art  consciously  based  upon  Bayen  and  Kakei.  The 
fourth  generation  from  these  men  was  still  living  ;  and  from  the  remote 
provinces  the  successors  of  the  In  style  came  to  the  Southern  capital. 
It  was  these  men,  trying  with  all  their  might  to  be  as  free  and  genial 
as  the  old  masters  of  Hangchow,  that  the  Japanese  of  early  Ashikaga 
struck.  For  the  new  Chinese  dynasty  was  as  friendly  to  Japan  and 
hostile  to  Europe  as  the  Mongols  had  been  hostile  to  Japan  and 
friendly  to  Europe.  In  this  change  lay  the  transition  from  Sung  to 
Japan  ;  the  future  of  Japanese  art,  and  the  whole  possibility  of  men 
of  our  day  understanding  in  the  least  what  the  art  of  China  had  been 
at    its   great    period. 

Great  landscapists  in  the  style  of  Kakei  and  Bayen,  now  pretty  much 
rolled  into  one,  are  Taibunshin  and  Sonkuntaku  .  .  .  Kuntaku  especially 
essayed  Bayen's  villa  style.  But  their  lines  at  best  are  awkward.  There 
is  a  chronic  lack  of  proportion,  as  in  all  products  of  the  Chinese  mind. 
The  boldness  of  angle  and  freedom   of  stroke  became  little  better  than 


58        EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND   JAPANESE    ART 

coarse  exaggerations.  Compositions  are  not  placed  finely  in  their  frames. 
It  is  a  weak  classic  renaissance.  In  flower  compositions  Rioki  follows  the 
hints  of  Joki  and  Chosho,  but  reacts  rather  violently  from  the  minuteness 
of  Gen  (Yuan)  execution.  Stroke  is  everywhere  coarse,  where  Gen 
was  fine.  Colour,  too,  is  coarse.  No  doubt  an  immense  amount  of  poor 
copying  was  done  from  old  masterpieces,  now  so  dark  that  their  true  tone 
could  not  always  be  made  out.  In  figures  the  lines  were  somewhat 
fine,  but  the  proportions  of  body  less  classic  than  those  of  Yuan.  The 
heads  became  too  large  and  top-heavy,  particularly  of  women,  where  the 
neck  becomes  too  small,  and  the  shoulders  sometimes  so  drooping  that 
they  hardly  seem  to  exist.  Here  the  better  painters  are  such  as  Kinyei 
and  Torin.  Kinyei  has  left  this  charming  garden  piece  of  Mr.  Freer's, 
nice  in  colour  and  feeling,  but  of  impure  proportion.  In  general  the 
colour  is  much  harder  than  in  Sugo  and  Shunkio,  running  now  to  harsh 
Chinese  contrasts  of  vermilion,  blue  and  green.  Such  pieces  as  the 
ladies  painting  and  writing  by  Torin,  also  in  Mr.  Freer's  collection, 
possess  a  certain  charm,  but  the  faces  are  becoming  more  doll-like, 
so  that  they  look  almost  as  childish  as  the  paper-doll  women  on  Tsing 
porcelain  and  embroidery.  Ming  architecture,  too,  overloaded  with 
colour,  has  less  dignity  and  splendour  of  developed  proportion  than  Sung. 
But  the  early  Ming  porcelain  shows  some  charming  delicacy  of  flower 
design  in  symmetrical  arrangement  of  monochrome  lines  drawn  upon 
a   single   tinted  ground. 

Among  the  earliest  Ming  painters,  however,  were  several  whose 
positive  genius  rose  above  the  mediocre  talent  of  their  fellows.  Such  was 
Rinno  (Ch'uan  Shih)  the  Mokkei  of  his  day,  whose  wet  sweeping  strokes 
are  full  of  demoniac  fire,  in  spite  of  participating  in  Ming  awkwardness. 
His  great  Hoo,  or  phoenix,  in  Sokokuji  at  Kioto,  is  really  a  thrilling  thing. 
Another  is  Shubun,  who  seems  to  have  been  almost  a  Ming  rehabilitation 
of  Kakei.  We  know  of  him  chiefly  from  Japanese  sources,  to  which 
country  it  seems  probable  that  he  came  as  an  immigrant,  and  was 
naturalized  as  a  Japanese  subject  under  the  family  name  Soga,  about 
1420.  He  lived  and  painted  at  Daitokuji,  in  the  North  of  Kioto, 
founding  there  the  great  Soga  school  of  Ashikaga.  He  is  thus  in  a 
special  sense  a  connecting  link  between  Hangchow  and  Japan.  His 
history  rather  belongs  to  that  of  Japanese  art,  and  we  shall  consider  his 
work  at  the  outset  of  the   next    chapter. 

But  by  the  end   of  the  fifteenth  century,  that   is,  a   little  more  than 


A   FAIR    HERMIT   IN    MOUNT   LO-FOU 
ATTRIBUTED   TO   TO-IN   (TANG   YIN) 


Ladies  Writing.     By  Torin  (Ming). 
Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 


''i//mjmj/j//i/Li!ijbJ:jii^,.t ' 


Outline  Painting — Woman   Dancing 
Kiuyei. 


il 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN    CHINA  59 

one  hundred  years  after  the  founding  of  Ming,  this  renaissance  school 
had  not  only  gone  to  pieces,  but  was  almost  wiped  out  of  the  national 
memory.  This  was  due  to  changes  which  I  shall  speak  of  again 
summarily  at  the  commencement  of  Chapter  XV.  .  .  .  The  old  predicted 
danger,  creeping  nearer,  had  shown  itself  as  early  as  1386,  with  a  special 
summons  of  the  Confucian  scholars  to  Court.  Under  their  advice  the 
third  Emperor  of  Ming  transferred  the  capital  again  to  the  North  (1421), 
that  is,  to  the  same  Peking  which  had  been  the  seat  of  Mongol  and 
of  Confucian  party.  This  was  really  decisive,  for  the  whole  strength 
of  Buddhism  and  Taoism  still  lay  in  the  south.  The  field  was  fairly 
free  for  the  Confucians.  It  is  a  matter  of  the  most  extraordinarily 
good  fortune  that  Sesshu,  the  greatest  artist  genius  of  Japan,  and  a 
Zen  priest,  got  over  to  Ming  about  1466,  before  the  Confucian  change 
became  complete.  In  a  few  years  later  it  was  as  if  a  veil  had  shut 
down  over  the  ancient  world,  and  Chinese  art  and  thought  became 
as  different  as  if  upon  another  planet. 


VOL.    II. 


Chapter   XII. 
IDEALISTIC    ART    IN    JAPAN. 

Ashikaga. 

THE  position  of  Japan  toward  the  close  ot  the  fourteenth 
century  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  in  the  whole  history 
of  art.  With  the  break-up  of  the  Fujiwara  oligarchy  in  the 
twelfth  had  vanished  the  last  trace  of  that  early  Chinese  influence 
that  had  come  in  from  the  Tang  dynasty.  During  the  feudal  age 
of  Kamakura  Japan  had  developed  her  own  rude  democratic  insti- 
tutions and  her  peculiar  dramatic  taste.  Her  dominant  art,  as  we 
have  seen  in  Chapter  IX.,  had  become  purely  national  in  form  and 
matter,  owing  nothing  specific  to  her  contemporary  and  neighbour,  the 
Southern  Sung  of  China.  This  long  breach  with  the  mainland,  so 
significant  for  the  freedom  of  the  Japanese  spirit,  had  been  due  to 
internal  disturbances  upon  both  sides  :  feudal  warfare  and  local  rivalry 
on  the  part  of  the  Japanese,  a  precarious  position  with  regard  to  Kins 
and  Mongols  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese.  Finally  the  Mongol  wave 
had  broken  itself  in  vain  against  the  wall  of  Japanese  Feudal  chivalry, 
with   a  result    of  mutual    hatred. 

But  when  the  Ming  dynasty  was  finally  established,  in  1368,  the 
situation  became  profoundly  changed  upon  both  sides.  In  Japan,  as 
we  have  seen  (Chapter  IX.)  Ashikaga  Takanji,  taking  up  arms  with 
the  ostensible  object  of  freeing  the  Emperor  Godaigo  from  the  tyranny 
of  the  Kamakura  Shoguns  and  of  their  court  guardians  the  Hojo,  had 
eventually  declared  himself  the  founder  of  a  new  dynasty  of  Shoguns, 
with  the  whole  administrative  power  of  the  Empire  in  its  hands. 
Takanji  himself  had  died  in  1358,  during  the  very  crisis  of  the 
struggles  between  Yuan  and  the  native  Chinese  revolution  ;  and  his 
successors  had  been  forced  to  maintain  a  desultory  civil  war  with  the 
thinning  partisans  of  the  "  Southern    Emperor "  until   the    formal    peace 


PAINTING   SAID   TO    BE   BY    RIN    TEIKEI 
(LIN   TING-KUEI) 

At  Daitokuji 


IDEALISTIC   ART    IN   JAPAN  6i 

of  1392.  But  the  accession  of  the  third  Ashikaga,  Yoshimitsu,  in 
1368,  had  brought  enough  substantial  peace  to  allow  this  able  adminis- 
trator to  devote  his  attention  to  internal  reforms.  He  might  have 
chosen  to  continue  the  Kamakura  regime^  removing  his  capital  as  far 
as  possible  from  the  Mikado,  and  resting  content  with  the  somewhat 
anarchical  and  superstitious  state  in  which  two  centuries  of  violence 
and  localization  had  left  the  Japanese  people.  But  Yoshimitsu  was  a 
true  statesman,  who  saw  that  Japanese  society  needed  some  new  strong 
spiritual  remedy  for  its  atomicity,  and  that  nothing  new  could  come 
without  the  decided  break  of  changing  the  Shogun's  capital  back  to 
Kioto,  where  the  two  courts,  imperial  and  military,  could  be  made  to 
work    side  by    side   in    a    common  cause. 

On  the  other  hand,  on  the  side  of  China,  it  happened — most 
dramatically  ! — that  the  very  year  of  proclamation  of  the  new  Ming 
Emperor,  1368,  coincided  exactly  with  the  advent  in  Japan  of 
Ashikaga  Yoshimitsu.  The  Ming  empire  was  indeed  shorn  of  all 
China's  former  north-western  possessions,  the  whole  of  Turkestan, 
Mongolia,  and  Manchuria  ;  but  it  was  all  the  more  glad  to  strengthen 
itself  with  friends  upon  the  east,  particularly  men  who,  like  the 
Japanese,  had  so  deeply  hated  Ming's  former  enemy,  the  Mongols, 
There  was  also  the  question  to  settle  amicably  of  the  ambiguous  states 
of  Corea.  A  special  mission  from  Japan  went  over  from  Nanking  in 
the  third  year  of  the  new  dynasty. 

i  It  was,  indeed,  a  unique  historical  crisis,  this  re-opening  of  inter- 
course, after  such  a  long  cessation,  between  the  two  great  Asiatic 
I  empires.  For  it  was  a  new  China  that  now  came  to  the  issue,  and 
an  equally  new  Japan.  The  Japanese  had  known  practically  nothing 
of  the  stupendous  problem  of  liberating  the  Chinese  mind  in  Sung, 
nothing  of  the  new  inclusive  philosophy,  almost  nothing  of  the  Zen 
contemplation,  and  practically  nothing  of  the  great  Kaifong  and 
Hangchow  academic  schools  of  landscape  art.  On  the  other  hand, 
here  was  a  Japan,  worn  out  with  generations  of  barren  struggle,  local 
aggrandizement  that  involved  no  principle,  an  almost  complete  cessation 
of  social  discipline,  education,  and  uplifting  art — in  short,  a  Japan 
heartily  sick  of  too  much  blood-letting.  And  the  necessity  and 
desire  for  a  new  organizing  principle  came  at  the  very  moment  when 
a  new  China,  enthusiastically  bent  on  recruiting  the  sum  of  Sung 
glories  within    itself,  had  just    the  most    vital    principle    of    all     Asiatic 


62       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

culture  to  offer  the  isolated  island  world.  The  only  opportunities  at 
all  like  it  had  been  the  marvellous  moment  when  the  whole  primitive 
youth  of  Japan  had  fermented  at  the  first  touch  of  Chinese  esoteric 
Buddhism  under  Shotoku  in  the  seventh  century,  and  the  less 
marvellous  moment  when  the  Fujiwara  nobility  of  young  Kioto 
had    responded    to   the   stimulus    of  Chinese   esoteric    Buddhism    in    the  | 

ninth.  '! 

But  this     new    chemical    reaction    of    the     fourteenth    and     fifteenth  ij 
centuries    was  to   be    a  far   more  marvellous  affair  than  either   of  those, 
in  that    on    the   one     hand,    the    fresh     individuality     of   the     Japanese 
mind  no   longer   implied    the  weakness    of  unformed  youth,  but  a  ripe 
character   built     into     generations     of    individual    variation     and    natural  ■ 
selection  ;  and    that,  on  the    other,     the     Sung    culture     was    the    ripest : 
expression  of  Chinese    genius,    a    gospel    of  nature    idealization     and  of 
the   divinity  of  art. 

A  more   profound   contrast  between   two  such  ideals  of  feudal   man- 
hood and  Zen  contemplation  can  hardly  be  imagined.     It  would  imply 
a    Japan   jumping    out    of  the    former    extreme    into    its    opposite,    and 
doubtless    this    is   just    what    Ashikaga    Yoshimitsu    had    in    mind.     A 
wholesale  importation  of  the    resurrected  Sung  ideals  from  Ming  would 
be    exactly    the    antidote    for    the    intolerable    disintegration    into    which 
Japanese  society  had   fallen.     It  is  the  greatness  of  Yoshimitsu  that  he 
saw  the  peaceful  Sung   culture  to  be  a  far    different  and  less    dangerous 
experiment  than  Tang  military  centralization.     It    should    be    still    indi- 
vidualization, but    rather  the    spiritual    than    the    military    development 
of  the  individual.     It   is  Yoshimitsu's  greatness  to  have  refused,  though 
replacing    his  capital    at   Kioto,   to   revive    anything    like     the    Fujiwara 
oligarchy  (as  Taira   Kiyomori   had   done),   but    to   rely,    for   the    unifica- 
tion of  society,  upon   a  common  passionate  devotion  to  the  ideal.     The 
great  Muromachi  palace    of  the   Ashikaga    at    Kioto  was    built   in    1378, 
and  the  importation  of  Chinese    books,   philosophy,   Zen  religion.  Sung 
poetry,    and   Hangchow  art    was   zealously    begun.       The  whole    round 
of    Sung  culture    was    soon    pouring  into   Japan  in   a    stream    of   intoxi- 
cating cargoes.     It  was   then  and   in  the  next   two  generations   that  the 
great    bulk   of  its   original  Tang  and  Sung  paintings,  which  Japan  owned 
in  Tokugawa  days,  and  still  owns  to-day  (including,  doubtless,  the  con- 
siderable  number    of  Yuen    and    Ming  copies,    to    say    nothing    of    the 
best  Ming    originals),   was    imported.      The    transmission   of  force   was 


o    . 

il 
II 

y.  o 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN   JAPAN  63 

made  at  the  very  last  moment  of  Chinese  heat,  before  the  Sung 
fervour  and  taste  had  quite  died  out  of  China's  mind  for  ever.  And, 
though  Ashikaga  fell,  and  was  followed  by  a  different  policy  of  the 
Tokugawas,  yet,  as  we  shall  see,  enough  of  the  magic  virus  remained 
in  the  blood  to  make  of  Japan,  down  to  the  year  1894  at  least,  the 
real  living  exponent,  with  unbroken  continuity,  of  the  great  Hangchow 
illumination.  But  the  greatest  creative  epoch  and  art  of  this  new  great 
Japanese   movement  was  to   come  on   at   once. 

The  career  of  Ashikaga  Yoshimitsu  is  to  be  divided  into  two 
portions,  the  twenty-six  years  from  1368  to  1394  in  which  he  ruled  as 
actual  Shogun,  and  the  fourteen  years  from  1394  to  his  death  in  1408, 
in  which,  although  he  had  deposed  himself  in  favour  of  Yoshimochi, 
he  ruled  with  all  the  more  power  as  a  great  retired  Zen  priest,  at  his 
beautiful  villa  temple  of  Kinkakuji  in  the  extreme  north-west  of  Kioto. 
The  significance  of  this  division  is  also  that  the  earlier  portion,  inter- 
rupted by  constant  warfare  with  the  dauntless  Kusunoki  faction,  could 
only  as  it  were  make  preparation  for  the  great  Chinese  policy  that  his 
brain  was  building  ;  but  that,  in  the  second  portion,  peace  being  just 
declared,  he  was  free  fully  to  realize  and  execute  this  policy.  The 
first  part  is,  then,  the  age  of  inception,  the  second,  including  the  later 
portion  of  Yoshimitsu's  reign  down  to  1428,  the  age  of  accomplish- 
ment. It  was  in  the  second  that  the  importations  from  China  became 
the  most  copious  and  deliberate  ;  in  the  second  that  Japanese  art  began 
to  respond  to  the  new  stimulus  with  a  large  force  of  creative  painters 
educated  at  well-established  schools. 

It  is  not  quite  true  that  Sung  art  and  Zen  influence  were  abso- 
lutely unknown  throughout  the  whole  Kamakura  period  of  Japan. 
The  dominant  truth  is  what  we  have  stated,  but  we  must  make  our 
minds  elastic  enough  to  recognize  a  minor  parallel  truth  without  losing 
grasp  of  the  main  one.  We  have  some  reason  to  suppose  that  as 
early  as  the  tenth  century,  the  Japanese  painter  Kose  Kanawoka  may 
have  been  influenced  by  the  pre-Sung  Joki  (Ch'u  Hui).  It  is  more 
clear  that,  in  the  early  days  of  Kamakura,  Zen  priests,  driven  from 
the  eastern  provinces  of  Northern  Sung  by  the  Kin  troubles,  and  of 
Southern  Sung  by  the  Mongol  troubles,  had  found  their  way  over 
:o  Japan  and  had  begun  to  found  Zen  temples,  especially  at  Kamakura, 
where  Kenchoji  was  built  in  1253.  It  is  even  true  that  the  feudal 
3ourt   of  Kamakura   had  been  in   some   sense   the  patron  of  this   new 


64       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE    ART 

thin  stream  of  art,  in  opposition  to  the  pure  Tosa  art  which  tended 
to  concentrate  at  the  court  of  the  Kioto  Emperor,  thus  superficially- 
considered,  making  the  Zen  predilection  of  Ashikaga  seem  no  such 
completely  original  a  device.  And  yet  the  truth  remains  as  I  have 
stated,  and  no  less  credit  attaches  to  the  plan  of  Yoshimitsu  in  that 
the  hint  which  he  seized  was  already  before  his  eyes.  How  could  he 
have  foreseen  the  value  of  Sung  culture  if  he  had  had  no  taste  of 
it  ?  The  most  violent  reactions  in  nature  and  society  are  always 
mediated  by  transitions  that  at  first  seem  insignificant.  It  is  quite 
true  that  the  rude  violence  of  the  Hojo  policy  could  have  had  no 
real  sympathy  with  the  Zen  movement,  that  the  Hangchow  culture 
could  not  have  been  seriously  studied  before  the  advent  of  the 
friendly  Ming,  and  that  the  new  landscape  art  could  not  have  been 
naturalized  and  grafted  on  to  the  national  genius  without  such  wide- 
spread and  deeply  organized  study  as  only  the  new  regime  of  Yoshimitsu 
could  have  founded.  The  great  Zen  episcopates  of  Kioto  were  all 
founded,  or  greatly  strengthened,  during  these  two  periods  of 
Yoshimochi. 

That  a  hint  of  the  mystical  art  of  Northern  Sung,  the  Ririomin 
school  of  Zen  Arhat  painting,  came  in  with  the  Kenchoji  Buddhism, 
we  have  also  seen.  We  there  said  explicitly  that  the  family  school 
of  the  Takuma  specially  devoted  itself  to  a  style  of  painting  to 
which  the  Ririomin  Zen  influence,  or  what  little  then  came  in 
of  it,  furnished  a  key.  The  style  of  Takuma  Shoga  in  Yoritomo's 
time  may  be  said  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  the  Tang  style  as  seen 
through  Kanenobu's  eyes  reinforced  with  the  partially-understood  style 
of  Ririomin.  But  outside  of  the  Zen  temples  of  Kamakura,  and  the 
Shingon  temples  that  evidently  considered  the  change  hardly  more 
than  a  Kose  revival,  Takuma  work  had  little  influence  upon  the  first 
feudal  age.  By  the  early  fourteenth  century  the  Takuma  tradition 
had  been  so  blended  with  Tosa  and  Kose  influences  as  practically  to 
disappear.  But  by  the  later  fourteenth  century  the  new  policy  of 
Yoshimitsu,  and  the  founding  of  powerful  Zen  temples  at  Kioto,  had 
converted  the  contemporary  Takuma,  Yeiga,  both  to  Zen  service,  and 
to  a  more  pure  and  intelligent  study  of  Ririomin  and  his  great  Sung 
followers  than  was  possible  to  his  ancestor  two  hundred  years  before. 
It  is  thus  true,  as  I  said  in  Chapter  IX.,  that  the  Takuma  school 
forms    a  certain  weak    link    between  China    and    Ashikaga,    even    down 


I 


ii 


2^ 


"I 
o  g 


v\ 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN  JAPAN  65 

through  the   almost   complete   severance  of  Kamakura.       But    it  would 
be   very  easy  to  exaggerate    the  importance    of  this  statement. 

The  artists  in  Japan,  who  began  to  work  in  the  first  flash  of 
the  new  Sung  ideas,  i.e.y  in  the  earlier  portion  of  Yoshimitsu's  life, 
are  of  two  classes — these  very  Takumas  who  specially  perpetuate  and 
revive  a  Ririomin  tradition,  and  the  Japanese  Zen  priests  who  had 
been  trained  with  more  or  less  of  success  under  the  Yuen  refugees, 
such  as  Giokuanshi  and  Nen  Kao,  who  almost  universally  follow  the 
Mokkei  tradition,  and  whose  very  names  betoken  a  desire  to  imitate 
the  poetic  noms    de  plume  of  Sung  scholarship. 

The  work  of  Takuma  Yeiga  is  chiefly  known  through  its  influence 
upon  his  great  pupil,  Cho  Densu,  in  the  next  generation.  Yeiga  was 
a  fine  colourist,  though  more  awkward  in  form  than  Ririomin,  and 
has  left  some  fine  Zen  portraits.  In  his  later  days  he  began  to  intro- 
duce monochrome  landscape  background  for  his  coloured  figures,  in  a 
sort  of  semi-Ming  style.  A  few  pure  ink  landscapes  of  his  exist, 
which  hardly  look  up  to  a  higher  source  than  Yuen,  proving  that 
Kakei,  Bayen,  Kakki,  and  the  whole  great  round  of  Sung  landscape 
geniuses  were  nearly   unknown   in    the  Japan   of  his  day. 

The  work  of  the  Zen  priests  lies  nearer  to  its  Chinese  source, 
the  Mokkei  style  lasting  with  fresher  power  into  the  Yuen  of 
Danshidzui's  day,  and  even  to  the  Ming  of  Rinno's.  Giokuanshi 
aspires  to  work  in  the  very  kind  of  orchid,  rock,  and  black  bamboo 
that  the  poet  Toba  loved,  and  which  the  Zen  priests  absorbed  from 
their  Hangchow  alliance  with  the  advanced  Confucians.  Nen  Kao  is 
a  greater  man,  and  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from  the  Hangchow 
Indara  and  Mokuan.  Although  there  is  something  a  little  amateurish 
about  these  original  early  effbrts,  it  still  remains  true  that  the  Japanese 
soul  was  taking  hold  of  the  movement  with  a  vitality  and  zeal  that 
could    hardly   be    found   in   Ming. 

Meanwhile  a  younger  generation  of  artists,  like  Cho  Densu  and 
Noami,  were  studying  from  what  originals  and  personal  instructions 
they  could  find  in  the  Zen  temples,  and  rapidly  familiarizing  them- 
selves with  the  new  importations.  Japanese  private  gentlemen,  not 
priests,  went  out  to  study  philosophy,  poetry,  and  Sung  music  in  the 
Zen  monasteries  that  skirted  Kioto,  just  as  their  Hangchow  predecessors 
had  frequented  the  lovely  haunts  across  the  Suiko  Lake.  To  be  in 
favour    with    the     Ashikaga    one    must    become    a    Sung     scholar,    and 


66       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

witness  to  the  new  life  by  the  simplicity  and  sesthetic  refinement 
of  his  household.  Architecture  suddenly  lost  much  of  its  florid 
carving,  and  its  bizarre  colour  and  gilding,  and  inlaying,  and  accom- 
modated itself  to  the  large,  severe  masses  of  Sung  and  Ming  model. 
Costume,  too,  became  simple  and  severe,  as  we  see  in  the  Ashikaga 
portrait  statues,  and  the  rigour  of  the  new  tea  ceremonies  soon 
enforced  a  taste  for  Sung  pottery  and  exquisite  utensils  of  silver  and 
bamboo.  Chinese  poetry  was  composed  on  every  hand,  and  in  a 
more  fluent  form  than  Michizane  had  tried  it  five  hundred  years 
earlier.  The  Zen  priests  taught  handwriting  in  a  new  free  style  that 
looks    like  Mokkei's   strokes. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  everything  Japanese  could  be  at 
once  abrogated  by  the  new  movement,  or  that  such  abrogation  was 
desired  by  Yoshimochi  and  the  Zen  priests.  Japan  was  too  indi- 
vidual and  patriotic  quite  to  forget  her  past,  her  great  record  of 
military  and  romantic  achievement.  The  incipient  epochs  that  had 
grown  up  about  the  careers  of  certain  Fujiwara  poets  like  Narihira 
and  Komachi,  about  the  fame  of  the  warriors  Yoshitsune,  the  Soga 
brothers,  the  clash  with  the  Mongols,  and  other  Kamakura  romantic 
episodes  ;  these  were  still  on  every  tongue,  and  a  special  problem  of 
the  priests  was  how  to  utilize  them  by  giving  them  a  force  and  con- 
solidation through  a  decided  turn  into  the  direction  of  moral  precept. 
The  merely  romantic  appreciation  of  these  episodes  must  be  quickened 
into  a  passion  for  greatness  of  character  as  such.  Now  it  happened 
that  a  form  of  secular  drama  had  already  arisen  in  China  among  the 
Mongols,  and  the  germs  of  a  comic  Kamakura  drama  had  been 
engrafted  upon  the  Fujiwara  Court  dances  in  Japan,  Now,  if  these 
weak  but  healthy  roots  could  be  made  to  grow  up  into  a  serious 
tragic  drama,  which  should  include  the  national  subjects  of  the  balladry 
and  prose  epics,  it  would  be  possible  to  invest  such  dramatic  form 
with  a  moral  purpose,  not  didactically  enforced,  but  cunningly  enwoven 
with  the  very  vividness  and  passion  of  the  representation.  Hence  the 
invention  of  the  Japanese  No  drama  as  the  greatest  literary  product  of 
Ashikaga,  under  the  supervision  of  Yoshimochi  himself  For  the  text 
of  this  drama  pure  Japanese  versification  was  employed,  not  in  the 
short  stanzas  of  the  old  lyrics,  but  with  lines  repeated  in  the  sonorous 
continuity  of  blank  verse.  Instead  of  English  iambic  pentameter  they 
used    a  compound  line    of  twelve  syllables,    divided    by    a    cesura    into 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN   JAPAN  67 

parts  of  seven  and  five.  In  this  Zen  idealism,  which  adapted  Japanese 
romance  to  its  dramatic  purposes,  was  laid  the  foundation  for  the  great 
Samurai  code   of  honour. 

It  was  in  these  many  ways  that  Yoshimitsu  was  gradually  trans- 
forming Japan,  at  first  tentatively,  during  his  Shogunate,  at  last  pas- 
sionately, during  his  retirement.  It  was  his  age  of  culmination  that 
witnessed  the  writing  and  acting  of  the  first  Japanese  Shakespeare 
and  the  inauguration  of  the  tea  ceremonies.  But  the  intercourse 
between  Yoshimitsu  and  the  Court  of  Ming  became  far  closer  after 
his  retirement,  and  it  is  this  very  closeness  which  has  at  once  suc- 
ceeded in  transfiguring  Japan  and  in  casting  a  slur  upon  his  memory. 
The  Japanese  have  never  forgiven  Yoshimitsu  for  seeming  so  far  to 
truckle  to  the  Chinese  Emperor  as  to  acknowledge  Japan  hardly  more 
than  a  Ming  vassal.  It  had  always  been  the  policy  of  the  Middle 
Kingdom  to  regard  the  outlying  nations  of  the  world  as  normally 
tributary,  and  it  might  well  interpret  the  special  mission  which  the 
retired  Yoshimitsu  sent  over  in  1399,  specially  sent  for  study  and  the 
collection  of  manuscripts,  books,  and  pictures,  as  a  quid  pro  quo  acknow- 
ledgment of  Chinese  sovereignty.  In  1402  the  Ming  Emperor  solemnly 
issued  letters  patent  to  the  old  shaved-head  monk  at  Kinkakuji  as 
"  King  of  Japan."  This  was  a  double  insult,  first  to  the  Mikado  and 
second  to  the  actual  Shogun,  Yoshimochi.  But  Yoshimitsu  literally 
was  "King  of  Japan,"  in  spite  of  both,  and  it  did  not  greatly  trouble  him 
what  interpretation  the  Ming  Court  might  put  upon  the  term.  Yearly, 
down  to  1409,  and  again  as  late  as  1420,  deputations  of  Ming  officials 
came  over  to  Kioto  to  wait  upon  Yoshimitsu,  who  took  care  that  they 
brought  with  them  a  goodly  stock  of  old  Sung  treasures.  Here  the 
mingled  work  of  criticism,  study,  and  creation  went  on  upon  a  scale  and 
with  an  enthusiasm  which  recalls  the  academy  of  the  first  Southern 
Sung  Emperor.  Indeed,  Yoshimitsu  was  fired  with  zeal  to  do  for 
Japan  what  Koso  and  his  successors  had  done  for  Hangchow.  He 
would  superintend  the  critics,  poets,  and  artists  in  person,  leaving  the 
disagreeable  details  of  administration  to  Yoshimochi.  That  is  why  he 
built  the  great  palace  temple  of  Kinkakuji  in  1397,  portions  of  which, 
with  its  beautiful  garden,  still  remain  to  witness  to  the  marvellous 
closeness  of  the  imitation.  "The  Golden  Storied  Pavilion,"  Kinkakuji, 
still  remains,  stripped  indeed  of  the  Chinese  gilding  of  its  tiles,  but 
raising    its  three    finely-proportioned  terraces    in    sombre    Chinese    state 


68       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

above  the  pine-walled  waters  of  its  miniature  Seiko  Lake.  This  pavilion 
was  an  imitation  of  such  as  Kublai  Khan  had  built  for  his  garden  villa  at 
Shan^tu  ("the  Upper  City")  which  our  Coleridge,  following  Marco  Polo, 
calls  Xanadu.  And  such  Yuen  architecture  had  been  closely  based  upon 
others  in  Hangchow,  and  more  remotely  upon  the  finest  one  which  Kiso 
Kotei  had  erected  in  his  artificial  lake  near  Kaifong,  in  Northern  Sung. 
Here  then  the  traveller  in  Kioto  to-day  can  witness  a  real  bit  of  belated 
and  transplanted  Sung  in  the  very  heart  of  the  material  present.  Here, 
indeed,  was  concentrated  a  branch  of  Ming  with  a  spirit  more  appreciative 
of  the  highest  culture  than  Ming  itself. 

The  first  great  creative  outburst  of  the  new  art  in  Japan  lies  between 
1394  and  1428.  And  how  completely  it  is  subject  to  the  Zen  influence 
which  was  dominating  the  land,  and  Kioto  especially,  with  new  religious 
fervour,  can  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  the  great  "  quadrilateral "  of 
Kioto  art  schools  lay  in  four  great  Zen  temples  :  Kinkakuji  in  the 
north-west,  Tofukuji  in  the  south-east,  Daitokuji  at  the  north,  and 
Shokokuji  near  the   centre. 

Kinkakuji,  Yoshimitsu's  special  erection,  was  not  only  a  villa  and 
palace,  but  a  temple,  with  specially  officiating  priests,  who  mingled 
with  lay  scholars  like  former  priests  at  Hangchow.  The  great  school 
of  art  at  Kinkakuji,  however,  was  not  directly  under  a  priestly  painter, 
but  a  great  lay  scholar,  like  the  "  golden  badge  officials  of  the  Hang- 
chow academy,  who  in  company  with  the  Shogun  himself,  directed  the 
work  of  critics  and  students."  This  was  Noami,  who  had  already 
studied  under  Zen  priests,  in  the  earlier  age,  and  was  best 
prepared  to  criticize  the  splendid  mass  of  old  Chinese  works  which 
were  making  of  the  Oyei  era  a  new  Senkwa.  What  a  wonderful 
revelation  it  must  have  been,  to  stand  with  Yoshimitsu,  Noami,  and 
the  Zen  priests,  watch  the  opening  of  the  precious  invoices,  and  join 
in  the  discussion  as  to  whether  the  unclassified  creations  of  Godoshi, 
Zengetsu,  Ririomin,  Kiso,  Boyen,  Kakei  and  Mokkei  were  to  be  called 
genuine,  or  only  Sung,  Yuen,  and  Ming  copies  !  The  treasures  brought 
over  to  other  Zen  temples  also  were  submitted  to  the  same  board  of 
experts.  It  is  upon  their  decision,  handed  down  to  us  through  the 
traditions  of  the  early  and  late  Kano  schools,  that  the  world's  knowledge 
of  the  greatest  Chinese  art  will  have  ultimately  to  rest.  The  data  for  a 
substantial  revision  of  their  view  will  never  be  forthcoming  ;  for  they  had 
thousands  of  examples  to  inspect  where  we  can  know  but  a  few  tens. 


Rakan  (or  Arhats). 
At  Tofukuji. 


Bv  Cho  Densu. 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN   JAPAN  69 

But  Noami  was  not  only  a  critic  :  he  was  a  great  painter  who 
did  not  merely  copy  Chinese  originals,  but,  breathing  in  their  spirit, 
poured  it  out  again  in  fresh  creation — a  feat  the  Ming  artists  found 
quite  impossible.  It  is  significant  of  Zen  origin  that  Noami  based 
his  style  entirely  upon  the  traditions  of  the  Mokkei  school.  A 
man  of  the  widest  culture  and  the  freest  genius,  he  penetrates 
closer  to  the  great  fountain  of  inspiration  than  his  priestly  teachers. 
His  brush  is  wilder  and  freer  in  touch,  yet  more  grand  and  massed 
in  its  notan  richness,  than  any  but  the  greatest  Sung  followers  of 
Mokkei.  There  is  a  wonderful  softness  about  his  wet  ink,  its  subtly 
blended  spreading  with  the  lightest  touch  of  hair,  that  is  quite 
original.  With  the  old  cream  parchment  papers  of  his  day  gleaming 
through  it,  this  monochrome  wash  according  to  its  thickness  takes 
on  mingled  tones  of  warm  sepia  and  dull  violet.  His  simplicity  of 
style  may  be  judged  from  the  pine  promontory  (Miyo  no  Matsubara, 
near  the  port  of  Tiji)  taken  from  one  of  his  screens.  The  misty 
hill-side  villa,  one  of  a  set  of  three  kakemono  in  Boston,  shows  him 
to  be  a  landscapist  of  greatest  breadth.  In  another  of  these  pictures, 
clefts  in  the  top  of  a  palisade  actually  catch  the  sunlight.  The  great 
dragon  and  tiger  screens  in  Boston,  though  stamped  with  the  seal 
of  Yeitoku,  were  judged  by  myself,  Kano  Yeitoku  third,  and  Kano 
Tomonobu,  to  be  examples  of  Noami's  later  manner,  in  which  his 
style  grows  more  splintery.  No  finer  waves  than  these  which  dash 
against  the  rock  in  feather-light  foam  have  ever  been  painted.  Com- 
pared with  them,  even  the  great  waves  of  the  Kano  school  look  like 
heavy  machinery.  (Note  :  These  screens  came  directly  from  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  old  daimio  families.)  They  stand  clearly  between 
Hangchow  and  Kano.  Noami  painted  some  fine  figures  also,  and 
there  are  mural  paintings  of  flying  birds  in  the  reception  rooms  of 
Kinkakuji. 

Under  Noami  was  his  son  Geiami,  whom  we  must  consider 
among  the  leading  geniuses  of  the  next  age,  and  Geiami's  son,  Soami, 
will  figure  among  the  prominent  Court  painters  of  Yoshimasa  toward 
the  last  of  the  century. 

The  second  corner  of  the  quadrilateral  is  at  Tofukuji,  which  lies 
upon  low  terraced  hills  far  south  upon  the  Fushimi  road,  where 
Higashi-yama  is  about  to  break  down  into  the  passes  to  the  Yamashnoi 
valley.     When     I    first     saw     Tofukuji    in     1880   it    was    an    enormous 


70       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

monastery    intact,     with    a    massive    gateway    at    the    south,     and    two 
colossal    halls    between    it    and    the    famous   hanging   causeway   over  the 
maple    valley.    These    halls    were    faced    externally   with    gigantic  pillars, 
set    antistyle,    and    made   of  single    trunks    of    Chinese    cedars    five    feet 
in    diameter  at   the   base,   and   some   fifty   feet   in  height,   that  had  been 
floated,   it  is  said,  from  the  head  waters  of    the  Yangtse   and  across  the 
China  sea.       No    vestige    of  colour    stained    the    solemn    silver    of  their 
weather-worn    granite.       Within,    the    high    space    was    dominated    by    a 
central    circular    panel,    some    thirty    feet    in    diameter,    painted    with    a 
single   colossal    twisted    dragon   from    the    pen    of    Cho    Densu.       Great 
statues    of  the    four    guardians,    descended    from    Wunkei's    time,    stood 
upon    the    great    raised    altar.       In    the  great    corridor  that    ran    behind 
the    altar    could    be    raised    with    pulleys     three    immense     kakemono, 
of  which    the    centre    was   a    colossal    Daruma  *    some     twenty     feet     in 
height.        This    was    executed    in    savage    ink     brush    strokes,    some    of 
which   were    as    wide    as    the    straw    of  a    floor    broom.     Both    of  these 
great    central    halls    were    destroyed    by    fire    in    1882.       The    hanging 
bridge    is    still    left,    the    gateway,    the    reception    and    living    rooms    of 
the    priests,    and     fortunately    the     treasure     houses     with    their    unique 
store  of  Zen  masterpieces.      I  have  lived  with   these  kindly  Zen  priests 
of  Tofukuji  for  weeks  at  a  time,  and  have  had  my  artists  privileged  to 
copy    for    months    many    of  these    wonderful    relics.       No    visit    which 
does  not  imply  residence   can   give  a  tithe   of  the  solemn-sweet   impres- 
sion— particularly  at   night  and  morning — of  cool    sanded  courts  crossed 
irregularly  with  granite  steps,  and    banked    with    Sung    compositions    of 
ancient  shrub   and    mossy    stone,  and    trickling     stream  ;     of    the    nobly 
proportioned    refectory    with    its    low    square     tower     and     cool,     tiled 
interior  ;  and  of  the  beautiful  high,  light  rooms,  set  cornerwise  between 
the    courts    and    overlooking    the    lower    wards    of    the    city,   where     the 
kakemono  were   brought   out   for   inspection.       In    those    sweet    days    of 
the  early   eighties,  and   accompanied  by  Kano  Tomonobu  and  Sumiyoshi 
Hirokata,  with   either    my    student,   Mr.  Okakura,  or    the    now    famous 
Mr.    Miyaoka    of  the    diplomatic    service  for    interpreter,   I   felt   like   an 
unworthy,    degenerate    Noami    privileged    to    revise    the     very    treasures 
that    had    delighted    his    eyes    450  years    before.        For    Tofukuji    could 
still    boast    of    possessing     the    great    Shaka,     Monju,     and    Fugen    of 

*  The  Japanese  appellation  for  Bodhidharma. 


I 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN   JAPAN  71 

Godoshi,   and    the    Nehan    (death   of   Buddha)    which,    though  attributed 
to  Godoshi,  is  by  some  later  Tang  artist. 

The    great   living    genius   of  Tofukuji,    and    master    of   its  school    in 
Yoshimitsu's   day,    was    the    same    Zen    priest,     Cho    Densu,    who    had 
learned    the  fourteenth   century  Sung  tradition  from  the  last  great  artist 
of  the    Takuma    family,   Yeiga.      Like    Yeiga,    Cho    Densu    occasionally 
painted    in    soft    ink    landscape,     but    in    general    his    style    was    broad, 
heavy  and  powerful,  as  if  his  brush  was  overcharged  with  restless   ink. 
His  great  dragon    and    Daruma,    in    the    hall    afterward    burned,    was  ot 
this    style.     But   his   strongest   work   was   clearly   based   upon    Ririomin's 
colour    work;  that   is,   upon   his  sixteen   Rakan*    (the    identical    set  now 
forming  the  greatest   single  treasure  of  the    collection  which   Mr.  Freer 
is    to    leave     to    our    national     Museum),    and    upon    the    500    Rakan 
of     Daitokuji,     which     have     always     been    ascribed     to     Ririomin     in 
the   records    of  the    latter    temple,    but    whose    relation    to   Ririomin   has 
already    been     fully    discussed       It    was    one    of  Cho    Densu's    greatest 
ambitions     to     paint    a    similar    set    of     100     paintings,     larger     in    size, 
of    similar    figure    composition,    but    with    some    variations    of  landscape 
backo-round.        These     he     first     worked     out     in     a     set     of     outline 
ink     drawings    on    paper,    and    then    finally    finished    a    second    set     m 
full    colour    upon    silk.       Both    sets    still    remain    at    Tofukuji,    and    are 
most    interesting  to   compare  with    the   parent    Sung    set.      They  are,  as 
might     be    expected,    less     splendid     in     drawing    and    proportion,    less 
startling    in    notan    effects,    than    the    set    that    lies    so    much    closer    to 
Ririomin     himself.        The     sketches     show    well     Cho    Densu's    heav)', 
splintery    stroke.       Many    Kwannons    by    Cho    Densu    remain  ;    but    one 
of  the    most    exquisite    is    a   small  one,  sitting   front    face,   with   delicate 
line,   and  soft    iridescent   colouring,    that   is  one   of  the   treasures   of  the 
Fenollosa    collection    at    Boston.       The    drapery    is    arranged    not    unlike 
the    supposed    Godoshi    original    shadowed    in    Yeiga's    and    Motonobu's 
front  Kwannons  ;  but  with  a  full  variety  and  colouring  that  recalls  the 
Enriuhon  early  Tang  type.     In  this  case  the  small  Chinese  boy  below  the 
Kwannon's  throne,   typifying   man,  is  actually  attacked   by  a  gold-scaled 
dragon,  instead  of  by  a  sinister  cloud  as  in  the  Godoshi  standing  Kwannon. 
It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  this  is  based  upon   a  Kiso  copy  of  a  great 
Tang    original.       John    Lafarge    has    specially    studied    this    Cho    Densu 
Kwannon  in  preparation  for  some  of  his  Oriental  types. 

*  Rakan  is  the  Japanese  name  for  the  Chinese  "Lo-han."     In  Sanscrit  "  Arhat." 


72       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND   JAPANESE   ART 

Cho  Densu  had  many  Zen  pupils,  among  whom  the  most  impor- 
tant is  the  priest  Kan  Densu,  and  the  most  famous  the  Shogun 
Yoshimitsu  himself.  Yoshimitsu  is  not  a  great  painter,  but  his  style 
shows  a  sort  of  compromise  between  the  traits  of  Noami's  and  of 
Cho    Densu's  monochromes. 

The  third  of  the  four  Zen  academies  was  the  great  monastery  of 
Daitokuji  in  the  fields  to  the  north  of  the  present  Kioto,  facing  the 
Kamo  river  and  the  bulk  of  Hiyeizan.  This,  though  falling  into  sadJ 
dilapidation,  remains  intact  as  to  the  great  number  of  main  and  smaller] 
affiliated  temples,  filling  with  their  low  cement  walls,  mossy  stonej 
paths,  and  lichen-patched  pines,  a  good  part  of  a  good  half-a-mile 
square.  More  than  fifty  great  halls  of  the  Ashikaga  age  remain  I 
standing.  The  broad,  two-storied  gate  has  its  fine  rectangular  spaces' 
enriched  with  natural  pillars  of  freely  growing  pine,  and  fine  bases  of  | 
granite  ponds  and  bridges.  The  central  do  s^  smaller  than  Tofukuji's, 
occupied  the  centre  of  the  vast  sanded  court.  Behind  this  stretch, 
right  and  left,  separated  shaded  courts  of  the  living  rooms  of  priests, 
each  with  its  sonorous  name,  until  we  come  to  the  massive  pavilions 
of  Shinjuin  at  the  north-east.  In  the  centre  lie  the  enormous  rooms 
of  the  refectory  and  the  great  beamed  corridors  that  lead  to  the 
kitchen,  where  meals  for  i,ooo  monks  could  once  have  been  cooked 
under  the  eight-foot  aperture  of  the  chimney.  Near  by,  set  in  a  great 
cool  terrace  of  stone  slabs,  rises  a  well  as  large  as  a  small  pond,  held 
within  the  smooth  facing  of  a  single  granite  block.  Far  to  the  west,  along 
dark  avenues  rarely  visited,  lie  range  after  range  of  subordinate  ins 
and  ans.  Here,  too,  I  have  spent  many  a  long  series  of  days  examin- 
ing the  wonderful  Chinese  paintings  at  my  leisure,  and  questioning 
the  friendly  abbot  concerning  the  principles  of  Zen,  or  the  traditions 
concerning  authorship  that  had  descended  from  his  forbears.  Here  is 
still  kept  Mokkei's  grandest  set  of  five,  centred  with  his  marvellous 
Kwannon,  the  remains  of  the  so-called  Ririomin  500  Rakan,  and  the 
largest  Kwannon  of  the  Enriuhon  type  (called  Godoshi).  The  unri- 
valled Japanese  collection  of  early  Ashikaga  and  Kano  examples  I  shall 
mention  as    we    come  to  their  authors. 

The  great  founder  and  teacher  of  this  school  in  Yoshimitsu's  day 
was  that  same  Shubun  whom  we  have  noticed  as  an  extraordinarily 
fine  Ming  artist  at  the  end  of  the  last  chapter,  and  whom  the  most 
probable    tradition    represents    as     coming    over      to     Japan    about     the 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN   JAPAN  73 

beginning  of  the  century,  and  accepting  Japanese  naturalization  under 
the  family  name  Soga.  (Note  :  Chinese  family  name  Ri-Shubun.) 
Doubtless,  he  found  the  flavour  of  this  new  experiment  of  Japanese 
converts  more  stimulating  than  the  somewhat  deliberate  formalism  of 
Ming  pretenders.  Being  Chinese  himself,  he  is  a  closer  link  with 
the  parent  genius  than  Noami  or  Cho  Densu.  We  do  not  know  his 
Chinese  history,  but  he  must  have  been  trained  in  some  southern  or 
western  seat  by  old  lovers  of  Kakei's  work  who  may  have  known  in 
their  youth  old  personal  pupils  of  Kakei's  son  Kashin.  That  is,  we 
may  conjecture  Kashin  to  have  lived  down  to  about  1280  at  Hang- 
chow,  and  Shubun  to  have  been  born  about  1360  in  later  Yuen. 
That  the  stream  which  flowed  from  Kakei  and  Bayen  to  him  was 
fresher  than  the  muddy  waters  from  which  men  like  Taibunshin  drank 
is  clear  from  the  almost  Sung  genius  of  his  work,  which  properly 
belongs  to  the  history  of  Japanese  art.  He  lived  to  a  ripe  old  age, 
not  a  priest,  yet  retired  like  a  priest,  in  the  lovely  moss-grown  court 
of  Shinju-an  of  Daitokuji,  not  far  north  of  the  Kondo,  where  he 
painted  upon  three  sides  of  both  of  his  connected  living  rooms.  These 
paintings  were  upon  the  original  sliding  doors,  where  they  had  formed 
a  sombre  mural  decoration  for  450  years,  when  I  saw  them  in  1880, 
1882,  and  1884.  They  gave  one  the  very  feel  of  Hangchow  life 
at  a  day  when  every  palace  and  pavilion  had  its  walls  finished  in 
stately  landscape  monochrome.  But  in  the  summer  of  1886,  before 
special  laws  against  the  alienation  of  temple  property  could  be  passed, 
they    were    added    to    the    large  private    collection    of  Count  Inouye. 

Both  rooms  faced  south  upon  an  ancient  garden  ;  the  paintings  were 
upon  the  eastern,  northern  and  western  walls.  Of  the  room  farthest 
east,  the  designs,  some  six  feet  in  height  and  thirty-six  in  total  length, 
were  of  pure  Chinese  landscape  on  a  scale  that  we  never  see  in  the 
daimios'  kakemono,  a  scale  which  Kakei  must  have  often  used  for  mural 
work  at  the  Sung  capital.  Great  knotted  pines  rose  in  counterpoint 
against  steep  cliff^s,  while  at  their  roots  nestled  Chinese  pavilions  with 
pointed  roofs,  and  poets  seated  on  picturesque  rocks.  The  paper  was 
considerably  defaced,  but  a  portion  of  the  design  can  be  understood  from 
the  accompanying  illustration  photographed  in  1882.  This  seems  to  be 
in  a  style  half  way  between  Bayen  and  Kakei.  The  other  room  was 
finished  in  more  cloudy  designs  of  wild  birds  flying,  or  seeking  food 
among  reedy  marshes ;  these  were  clearly  in  the  style  of  Mokkei,  and 
of  a  freedom   and    force  seldom    realized  by  Ashikaga  artists. 


74       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

Another  great  work,  judged  by  Kano  Tomonobu  and  myself  in 
1882  to  be  by  this  same  Shubun,  the  judgment  based  of  course  upon 
comparison  with  the  Daitokuji  originals,  is  the  splendid  pair  of  land- 
scape screens  in  the  Fenollosa  collection  at  Boston.  I  am  not  at  liberty 
to  say  from  which  one  of  the  famous  daimio  collections  I  bought 
this  treasure.  The  screen  with  the  great  central  pile  of  mountains 
is  doubtless  the  grandest  landscape  ever  produced  in  Japan,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  by  Sesshu,  and  comes  the  nearest  to  Kakei  in 
ripeness  of  feeling  of  any  large  landscape  that  we  possess.  In  some 
respects  it  is  like  the  early  work  of  Sesshu  himself ;  but  the  great 
splintery  black  touches  on  foreground  rocks  and  the  foliage  of  nearer 
trees  is  almost  pure  Ming  in  style,  being  quite  unlike  the  awkward- 
nesses of  such  Japanese  as  Toga,  which  at  first  sight  it  seems  to 
resemble.  In  richness  of  atmospheric  effect  nothing  but  Kakei  sur- 
passes it.  In  noble  massy  composition  it  is  less  mannered  than  Sesshu's, 
being  comparable  to  the  great  Rhine  landscapes  of  old  Dutch  artists 
like  Berglener,  or  the  magnificent  groups  of  cliff  and  lake  that  Turner 
builds  into  his  Swiss  scenes.  But  it  is  more  ripe  and  finished  than 
any  monochrome  of  the  Liber  Studiorum  ;  and  much  less  thin  in 
composition  than  the  finest  etchings  and  lithographs  of  Whistler.  The 
centre  is  occupied  by  a  great  pyramid  of  splintered  cliffs,  within  whose 
broken  angles  are  set  the  picturesque  roofs  of  Chinese  Zen  monasteries. 
Enormous  oak  trees  and  fallen  boulders  give  firm  foreground  to  this 
middle  distance.  On  the  left  the  central  mountains  break  away  into 
a  valley  filled  with  soft  feathery  trees,  beyond  which  is  a  great  rounded 
hill,  touched  with  the  accent  of  a  lone  tree,  the  value  of  which  hill 
is  so  cunningly  shaded  that  it  comes  absolutely  unbroken  by  line  or 
tint  against  the  equal  glow  of  distant  sky,  and  yet  is  perfectly  felt 
as  a  great  solid  bulging  mass.  No  such  magic  of  atmospheric  notan 
is  found  anywhere  in  Sesshu.  On  the  right  the  central  mountains  break 
down  into  the  rounded  breast  of  a  long  alluvial  hill,  whose  thinning 
gleams  of  tinted  ink,  unoutlined  at  the  top,  pass  gradually  back  behind 
the  veil  of  a  golden  mist-soaked  distance.  A  strip  of  water,  reflecting 
the  hazy  blurs  of  the  sky,  separates  the  semi-distant  hill  from  the 
strong  bit  of  accent  in  the  lower  right-hand  corner.  This,  which  quite 
corresponds  to  Kakei's  corner  accent  in  his  coast  panorama,  shows  a 
low  promontory  half  veiled  in  river  grasses  where  small  boats  cower, 
backed   with   a   few  low  plastered   huts,  and  bounded  with  a  large  rock 


Two   Bird  Panels  fkom  a  Screen   bv  Jasoku 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN  JAPAN  j^ 

and  tree  nearly  identical  with  one  found  in  Kakei's  tide  at  Suitang. 
This  corner  piece  alone  exhibits  the  very  ultimate  law  of  notan,  a  dozen 
clearly  mosaic  spaces  of  separate  tint  standing  severally  for  mud,  grass, 
boat,  plaster,  tile,  rock  and  tree.  The  beauty  of  the  atmospheric  effect 
is  heightened  in  the  original  by  the  addition  of  very  soft  tints  in 
orange  and  blue-green.  This  we  know  to  have  been  one  of  Kakei's 
favourite  methods,  although  few  of  his  existing  pieces  show  it. 

Another  stupendous  work  evidently  by  the  same  Shubun  who  did  this 
preceding  scene,  and  which  came  to  notice  as  late  as  1905,  when  it  was 
added  to  Mr.  Freer's  collection,  is  a  powerful  pure  ink  landscape  thrown 
across  a  screen  of  four  broad  folds.  This  is  more  condensed  and  broader 
in  effect,  continuing  the  touches  of  Riokai  and  Mokkei  with  a  notan 
peculiarly  Kakei-ish.  Mr.  Freer  strongly  thinks  that  no  Sesshu 
which  he  has  yet  seen  approaches  it,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  regarded  as  the 
supreme  landscape  masterpiece  of  the  Ashikaga  schools.  For  lustrous 
splendour  of  ink  contrasting  with  broad  silvery  gleams  of  light,  and  for 
demoniac  power  of  stroke  (this  like  Riokai)  it  may  be  set  side  by  side 
with  the  great  Sung  masterpieces. 

The  greatest  pupils  of  Shubun  at  Daitokuji,  were  his  son,  Soga  Jasoku, 
who  lived  and  did  mural  painting  at  Shinjuan,  and  Nara  Kantei,  who  also 
worked  at  Daitokuji.  Jasoku  is  rougher  than  his  father,  and  more  awkward 
in  spacing.  His  notan  schemes  are  powerful,  but  more  bizarre.  He  did 
some  landscapes,  as  on  the  walls  of  Shinjuan,  but  his  special  bent  was 
toward  painting  birds  of  prey,  great  eagles  and  hawks  upon  craggy 
branches.  In  this  he  formed  a  school  which  descended  to  his  Soga 
successors  for  four  generations.  Fine  examples  of  such  work  are  upon 
a  pair  of  screens  at  Boston,  signed  with  an  official  name  which  Kano 
Tomonobu  recognised  to  be  Jasoku's,  Jasoku's  figure  pieces  are  fine, 
like  his  Sakyamuni  in  the  Wilderness,  in  which  there  is  purity  of 
naive  feeling.  His  set  of  three  Zen  priests,  also  at  Shinjuan,  are 
probably  copied  from    Ganki's  originals. 

The  fourth  great  Yoshimitsu  school  was  at  Sokokuji,  which  occupies 
part  of  the  site  of  Kwammu's  original  Kioto  palace.  This  temple  has 
been  much  injured  by  fire  ;  and  the  larger  part  of  its  ancient  collections 
have  been  destroyed  or  dispersed.  Here  worked  the  great  teacher 
Josetsu,  who  has,  by  some  tradition,  but  with  less  certainty  than 
Shubun,  also  been  regarded  as  an  immigrant  Chinese.  His  work, 
awkward    and    strange    if  compared  to  accepted  Ashikaga  canons,  seems 

VOL.  II.  F 


76       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

certainly  like  the  work  of  an  eclectic  Ming  artist,  rather  than  of  a 
Japanese  Zen  priest.  There  are  several  specimens  in  Boston,  of 
which  a  large  landscape  in  the  Fenollosa  collection  shows  an  interesting 
confluence  of  two  Chinese  rivers,  with  a  low,  rocky  and  marshy  tract 
between,  passing  off  into  the  distance  through  layers  of  mist  that  half 
conceal  the  roofs  of  bannered  terraces.  This  is  not  the  pure  Ming 
style  that  imitates,  but  half  travesties,  the  peculiar  Northern  Sung  touch 
of  Risei  and  Kakki.  From  the  variety  of  styles  in  the  alleged  and 
sealed  Josetsus,  it  may  be  inferred  that  he  was  a  prolific  copyist  rather 
than  a  great  creator  like  Soga  Shubun. 

Among  Josetsu's  many  pupils,  by  far  the  greatest,  and  one  far 
greater  than  himself,  was  a  Zen  priest  whose  identical  name  Shubun 
had  better  be  distinguished  from  the  preceding,  by  Romanizing  it  into 
Shiubun.  The  Japanese  make  the  distinction  by  calling  one  Ri-Shubun 
or  Soga  Shubun,  the  other  So-Shubun — i.e.^  Priest-Shubun.  Shiubun 
was  the  first  artist  of  Ashikaga,  not  of  Chinese  blood,  to  rise  to  the 
full  power  and  grasp  of  Hangchow  art.  To  do  this  he  studied  all 
artists,  but  particularly  Kakei.  In  his  earlier  work  he  is  especially 
like  Kakei,  as  is  shown  by  a  Boston  example.  Here  the  free  wetness 
of  the  ink  masses  fairly  crumbles  against  the  gleams  upon  the  tree  trunk 
and  stone.  The  world  is  bathed  in  thick  damp  mist  through  which 
golden  sunlight  sifts  and  shifts.  In  his  later  work  Shiubun  invented 
a  harder  manner,  in  which  great  mounted  masses  pile  up,  trees  and 
roofs  are  executed  in  a  fine  nervous  touch  that  looks  like  the  burr  of 
"dry-point,"  and  the  dark  passages  upon  rocks  tend  toward  triangular 
shaped  shadows.  A  very  pale  tinting  of  orange  and  blue  adds  to  the 
liveliness  of  this  effect,  as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Freer's  fine  example. 
A  number  of  good  screens  by  Shiubun  are  in  daimios'  collections.  He 
also  did  figure  pieces,  particularly  of  Taoist  Sennin.  His  copy  of 
Gankui's  Zen  priest  is  in  Mr.  Freer's  collection,  and  his  splendid 
Taoist  in  tones  of  opaque  white,  which  realizes  Whistler's  thought 
of  painting  as  akin  to  the  light  of  opaque  glazes.  One  of  Shiubun's 
greatest  claims  to  our  interest  is  that  he  was  the  early  teacher  of 
Sesshu. 

The  end  of  this  period  o^  the  establishment  may  be  reckoned  at  1428, 
the  date  of  Yoshimochi's  death.  The  next  period,  that  of  the  inherit- 
ance^ may  be  considered  to  comprise  the  broken  reigns  of  several 
intervening     Shoguns    before    Yoshimasa,    and    the    earlier    part    of   the 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN   JAPAN  jj 

reign  of  Ashikaga  Yoshimasa  himself,  down  say  to  the  Onin  war  which 
began  in  1467,  or  to  the  return  of  Sesshu  from  China  in  1469,  after 
a  period  of  confusion  and  revolt.  In  spite  of  his  military  weakness, 
and  his  absorption  in  aesthetic  pleasures,  he  may  be  said  to  have  been 
the  ruling  mind  of  Japan  for  forty-one  years  down  to  1490.  On  an 
even  more  pronounced  devotion  to  the  Chinese  cause  of  a  revived 
Sung  than  his  ancestor  Yoshimitsu,  he  may  be  regarded  as  the  great 
successor  of  the  latter,  the  two  dividing  between  them  some  ninety 
most  significant  years  of  Ashikaga  rule.  The  Chinese  culture  of  Japan 
in  Yoshimasa's  day  was  on  a  higher  level  or  refinement  and  accomplish- 
ment, indeed  the  latter  part  of  his  life  we  must  call  the  culmination 
of  Ashikaga  art.  He  came  in  a  turbulent  age  of  revolting  barons 
and  local  quarrels  which  the  virtues  of  aesthetic  ecstasy  had  not  been 
able  to  quell.  In  this  respect  his  misfortunes  are  much  like  those  of 
Kiso  Kotei,  the  cultured  side  of  whose  career  he  seems  consciously 
to  have  emulated.  His  weakness  was  the  same  kind  of  weakness  and 
similarly  punished  ;  but  not  so  severely,  since  Yoshimasa  did  not 
die  in  hopeless  banishment — rather  he  outlived  his  temporary  misfortunes, 
to  the  realization  of  absolute  aesthetic  triumph. 

Of  the  middle  age,  down  to  1467,  the  artists  or  whom  we  have 
already  spoken  as  pupils  under  Yoshimitsu,  take  the  full  lead  : — 
Geiami  at  Kinkakuji,  Jasoku  at  Daitokuji,  and  Shiubun  at  Sokokuji. 
In  the  latter  place  is  also  growing  up  the  young  priest,  Sesshu,  who 
bids  fair  to  outstrip  all  his  predecessors.  Jasoku's  and  Shiubun's  work 
we  have  already  described.  Geiami's  is  like  his  father,  Noami's,  but 
less  robust  in  form.  It  has  splendid  notan,  however,  and  in  the 
treatment  of  blurry  foliage  it  comes  to  have  an  atmospheric  breadth 
like  that  of  the  modern  Frenchman,  Corot.  His  planes  of  mountain 
in  mist  are  well  given  in  the  Boston  landscape  ;  his  Corot-ish  trees  are 
shown  in  the  extract  taken  from  Mr.  Freer's  splendid  pair  of  screens. 

This  middle  age,  however,  did  not  seem  to  get  on  as  fast  as  it 
wished.  The  impulse  given  by  Yoshimitsu's  earnest  study  perhaps  had 
passed  away.  Perhaps  it  was  too  difficult  to  draw  enough  nourishment 
from  alien  soil,  for  it  is  noticeable  that  with  the  exception  of  Noami's 
Miyo  no  Matsubara,  all  the  paintings  I  have  mentioned  have  been 
purely  Chinese  in  subject.  It  had  almost  got  to  the  point  where  a 
domestic  subject  seemed  inartistic  and  vulgar.  Classicism  was  as  rampant 
in  this  renaissance  as  in   the   contemporary  one  of  Italy,  though  in    the 


78       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE    ART 

former  Chinese  landscape  took  the  place  of  Venuses.  The  real 
depth  of  the  movement  lay,  of  course,  in  Zen  idealism.  But  technical 
soundness  demanded  deeper  study.  Yoshimasa  accordingly  undertook 
to  send  new  messengers  to  Ming  with  fresh  appeal  for  assistance  in 
collecting  masterpieces.  By  this  time  the  movement  in  Ming  was 
weakening,  and  the  artists  had  become  poorer.  They  cared  less  about 
preserving  their  masterpieces ;  their  perpetrated  copies  were  more 
discernible.  So  Yoshimasa  reaped  a  new  crop,  which  Geiami  criticized  ; 
and  from  this  source  new  spirit  could  be  derived.  It  was  not  enough, 
however,  for  several  of  the  artists,  among  whom  Sesshu  was  the  most 
earnest.  Possessed  of  a  divine  genius,  nothing  could  satisfy  him  short 
of  Chinese  reality.  So  about  1465  he  went  over,  some  say  with  his 
fellow-students  Sesson  and  Shuko,*and  remained  for  several  years  in 
Ming,  where  he  tried  not  only  to  copy  all  the  Kakeis  he  could  find, 
but  especially  to  travel  to  all  the  famous  scenes  where  Kakei  and  the 
other  great  Sung  landscapists  had  painted  from  nature.  His  style  of 
sketching  was  so  rapid  and  incisive  that  he  brought  back  to  Japan  in 
1469  thousands  of  fresh  impressions  of  all  the  most  noted  places  in 
Chinese  scenery  or  history,  with  accurate  studies  of  costumes  worn  by 
famous  individuals,  and  of  portrait  types.  This  enormous  accession  to 
Japan,  not  only  of  raw  material  but  of  personal  vigour  and  genius, 
gave   the  final    push  of  Ashikaga  art  toward  its    apex. 

Meanwhile,  Yoshimasa  had  undergone  the  horror  of  the  Onin  civil 
war,  which  set  Kioto  again  in  ashes,  as  the  Hogen  Heiji  war  had  done  in 
the  twelfth  century,  destroyed  many  Zen  monasteries  and  famous  palaces, 
and  led  to  the  loss,  doubtless,  of  many  of  the  most  precious  originals 
already  imported,  including,  perhaps,  some  of  the  Godoshis,  whose 
copied  anti-types  we  recognize.  It  was  all  due  to  strife  between  two 
rival  daimios,  as  to  which  should  control  the  succession  to  the  Shogunate. 
As  a  result  Yoshimasa  abdicated  in  1472,  and  was  left  free  to  repair  the 
loss,  if  possible,  by  renewed  aesthetic  work.  By  1479  he  had  built  his 
lovely  new  pavilion  of  Ginkakuji,  "  the  silver  terraces,"  in  the  far  north- 
east of  the  city,  where  he  retired  with  the  greatest  artists  of  his  day 
to  carry  Yoshimitsu's  personal  experiments  to  purer  triumphs.  Soami, 
the  son  of  Geiami,  and  his  leading  critic,  planned  the  laying  out  of 
the  garden.  Sotan,  the  successor  of  Shiubun  at  Sokokuji,  painted  on 
the   walls  with   his  pupil   Kano   Masanobu,       Sesshu    was    for  a  time  at 

Shuko,  or,  as  it  should  be,  Shukci,  is  another  name  for  Sesson. — ]^<o^EssoR  Petrucci. 


Wooden  Portrait  Statue  of'Ashikaga  Yoshima^- 
"The  Lorenzo  de  Medici  of  Japan."  at  Ginkakuji, 
near  Kioto. 


! 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN  JAPAN  79 

hand  to  give  advice  of  infinite  value,  though  most  of  his  later  life  he 
spent  as  priest  in  Choshu.  Again  a  last  attempt  was  made  to  import 
masterpieces  from  Ming,  and  those  would  be  the  last,  for  the  Ming 
movement  was  fast  succumbing  to  the  pedantry  of  the  Confucians. 
Here  Yoshimasa  lived  and  worked,  indeed,  as  a  second  Kiso,  down  to 
his  death  in  1490.  This  was  his  triumph,  for  he  had  been  spared  to 
see  Japanese  art  really  rivalling  all  but  the  greatest  masterpieces  of  any 
Chinese  period.  His  tomb  is  in  the  group  of  buildings,  comparatively 
modern,  that  adjoins  the  land-garden  of  Ginkakuji.  There  the  great 
Shogun  sits  in  splendid  dark  wood  statue,  as  if  alive  ;  the  single  lines 
of  his  priest-like  garment,  the  sweet,  sad  smile  on  his  face,  the  pathetic 
dignity  of  his  fine  clasped  hands  bringing  a  strangely  interesting  per- 
sonality before  us.  Here  indeed  is  the  very  Lorenzo  di  Medici  of 
Japan,  who  had  done  for  his  great  contemporaries,  by  his  purely 
democratic  interest  in  art,  primus  inter  pares,  what  the  great  Florentine 
banker  had  done  for  his  supreme  generation.  Yes,  if  Yoshimitsu  had 
been  the  Cosmo  di  Medici  of  Japan,  Yoshimasa  was  the  Lorenzo,  and 
each  pair,  by  mere  accident,  were  exactly  contemporary.  The  analogy 
goes  on  even  to  the  degenerate  Medici  and  Ashikaga  or  the  sixteenth 
century. 

^  Among  the  crowd  of  artists  who  arose  through  two  generations 
in  the  four  schools  of  the  quadrilateral,  there  was  one  Sesshu,  so 
central,  so  sane,  so  masterful,  so  versatile,  finally  of  such  a  fiery 
genius,  that  he  easily  overmarks  them  all,  focuses  the  whole  work 
of  the  Ashikaga  school  into  himself,  and  stands  up  for  ever  as  their 
central  peak.  He  does  more  :  he  goes  back  to  China,  reproduces 
in  imagination  the  great  China  of  Hangchow,  makes  of  himself  a 
living  museum  of  mingled  fact  and  reminiscence,  and  then  goes  back 
to  Japan  to  make  it  see  that  wondrous  past  as  clearly  as  he  sees  it, 
by  projecting  it  through  the  marvellous  lens  of  his  own  creative 
genius.  Without  him  Chinese  art  would  have  lacked,  as  late  as  the 
fifteenth  century,  a  supreme  interpreter.  Through  him — his  knowledge, 
his  criticism,  his  art — not  only  Japan,  but  the  whole  world,  shall 
know  it  for  ever,  and  even  some  reconstructed  China  of  another 
century  will  have  to  peer  back  upon  its  own  dim  past  through 
.  Sesshu's  eyes. 

Of  the  career  of  Sesshu  before    he    went    to   China  we  know    little 
enough,  but  he  had  strongly  impressed  his  friends,  including  Yoshimasa. 


8o       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

He  went  as  a  great  Zen  priest,  and  that  opened  to  him  the  Chinese 
monasteries.  He  came  with  the  credentials  of  the  Japanese  "King," 
and  that  opened  to  him  the  courts  of  the  Imperial  Palace.  He  was 
recognized  by  a  failing  generation  of  Chinese  artists  as  easily  their  superior. 
They  marvelled  to  see  the  unconscious  ease  with  which  he  dashed  off 
spirited  sketches,  while  they,  with  their  utmost  labour,  could  produce 
only  mannered  distortions.  He  was  to  them — and  will  be  for  ever  to 
the  world — like  a  Kakei  come  again  in  the  flesh.  It  was  not  that  he  tried, 
or  needed  to  try,  to  imitate  Kakei,  or  anybody  else.  He  created  afresh 
in  his  own  right,  in  his  own  manner,  as  if  he  were  a  new  Hangchow 
genius  of  the  first  rank,  only  a  little  belated.  He  stood — and  stands 
— side  by  side  with  Bayen,  Kakei  and  Mokkei  ;  yet  is  diff^erent  from 
either  of  them,  as  they  are  from  each  other. 

His  range  led  him  through  every  variety  or  Chinese  subject : 
figures,  religious,  historical,  symbolical,  biographical  ;  the  crowded  life 
of  the  people,  in  cities,  palaces,  temples,  farms  and  mountain  valleys  ; 
the  lovely  mirrors  of  the  human  soul  to  be  found  in  feathered  and 
furry  life,  great  storks  stepping  like  lords  through  their  gardens  of 
wild  plum,  timid  herons  hiding  under  the  lotus  of  the  church  from 
predatory  hawks,  the  domestic  chatter  of  hens  and  ducks,  the  gor- 
geous poise  and  arrow-flash  of  wrens  and  jays  and  doves,  mild-eyed 
deer,  suspicious  rabbits,  monkeys  crying  for  their  dimly-perceived 
humanity,  tigers  who  can  bask  in  hurricanes  as  snakes  in  sunlight 
dragons  who  realize  in  their  natures  the  liquid  boil  of  earth's  life- 
blood — water.  But  it  was  in  landscapes — meet  for  the  great  Zen  seer — 
that  he  realized  supreme  height.  Here  no  mood  escaped  him,  no 
character-soaked  nook.  He  brought  back  vast  panoramas  which 
record  the  continuity  of  coast  scene,  with  inlet,  island,  junk,  and 
castled  town  ;  the  jagged  steps  of  inland  ranges,  which  stop  in  their 
dizzy  climb  to  gaze  at  themselves  in  silver  lakes  ;  the  startled  leap  of 
waterfalls  that  find  themselves  pursued  to  a  granite  brink  ;  the  frosty 
upland  forests  that  shiver  under  their  blanket  of  perpetual  mist  ;  the 
lonely  walk  of  Zen  priests  through  menacing  ravines  ;  the  sunny 
stretches  of  chequered  rice-fields  fighting  for  room  amidst  tumbled 
volcanic  ^eMs  ;  cliff*-perched  temples,  preening  themselves  like  resting  birds, 
r  Sesshu  painted  in  the  palace  of  the  Ming  Emperor,  did  there 
great  mural  work,  as  he  did  later  in  Japan,  and  doubtless  left  behind 
him  in    the    Chinese    archives    many  a    kakemono,    of    which    only    one 


.     I 


Painting.     Bv  Sesshu. 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN  JAPAN  8t 

or  two  have  strayed  to  light  in  recent  years.  When  he  returned  to 
Japan,  it  is  said  that  artists  and  nobles  accompanied  him  to  the  vessel, 
showering  upon  him  such  masses  of  white  silk  and  paper,  to  be  re- 
turned at  his  leisure  as  finished  paintings,  that  they  there  gave  him 
the  pen-name,  "Sesshu,"  "Ship  of  Snow."  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  the  name  was  already  in  use,  and  this  origin  of  it  a  myth.  It 
is  clear  that  the  landing  of  Sesshu  in  Japan  was  hailed  as  a  national 
event,  and  that  he  proceeded  to  train,  under  his  personal  supervision, 
such  men  as  Sotan,  Sesson,  Shiugetsu,  Kano  Masanobu,  and  the  young 
Kano  Motonobu.  He  refused,  however,  all  permanent  emoluments  of 
Yoshimasa's  court,  and  retired  as  Zen  priest  to  his  country  parish  of 
Unkoku-an,  in  Choshu.  There,  for  years  before  his  death  in  1506  or 
1507,  at  the  ripe  age  of  eighty-four  or  five,  he  became  an  object  of 
pilgrimage,  the  great  and  the  poor  alike  seeking  for  a  token  from  his 
brush.  He  painted  the  walls  of  many  monasteries  long  since  destroyed, 
and  hundreds  of  six-fold  screens,  of  which  many  have  moulded  away 
in  damp  godowns,  or  been  burned  in  conflagrations.  An  enormous 
amount  of  his  work  remains,  however,  though  it  is  so  zealously 
prized  and  guarded  that  few,  even  of  living  Japanese  scholars,  have 
seen  many  of  his  greatest  masterpieces.  The  large  number  of  copies 
formerly  made  by  the  Tokugawa  Kanos,  and  owned  during  the  eighties 
by  my  master,  Kano  Yeitoku,  proved  a  unique  field  for  studying  his 
design. 

^.  The  style  or  Sesshu  is  central  in  the  whole  range  or  Asiatic  art, 
yet  unique.  Its  primary  vigour  lies  in  Its  line.  Sesshu's  conceptions 
are  more  solidly  thought  out  in  terms  of  line,  and  line  is  more 
dominant  In  his  work  than  is  the  case  with  any  of  the  other  great 
masters  of  monochrome,  except  possibly  Ririomin.  In  landscape  Bayen 
comes  the  nearest  to  this  quality.  The  execution  of  Sesshu's  line, 
however.  Is  quite  unique.  It  is  rough,  hard  and  splintery,  as  If  his 
brush  were  Intentionally  made  of  hog  bristles  Irregularly  set.  He 
evidently  wished  to  emulate  Mokkel  In  his  broad  freedom  of  strokes, 
yet  to  eschew  their  softness  and  roundness.  Sesshu  is  the  greatest 
master  of  straight  line  and  angle  in  the  whole  range  of  the  world's  art. 
There  is  no  landscape  so  soft  that  he  cannot,  if  he  wills,  translate  it 
into  terms  of  oaken  wedges  split  with  an  axe !  As  contrasted  with 
Ririomin,  his  line,  while  feeling  for  the  grandeur  of  spaces,  scornfully 
rejects    the   perfect    polish    of  the    taper  and  of   the    edge.      Rlriomln's 


82       EPOCHS   OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   APvT 

line  is  like  perfect  chirography,  as  strong  as  steel,  as  flexible  in 
temper,  as  finished  in  surface.  The  abstract  edges  of  its  thickening 
and  thinning  curves  would  make  two  excellent  interrelated  hair-lines. 
But  Sesshu's  line,  even  where,  as  in  its  large  Buddhist  images,  it 
aims  at  Ririomin's  grandeur  and  modulation  of  flow,  almost  brutally 
hacks  the  traditions  and  sinuosities  into  unrelated  shivers  and  passionate 
scratches.  It  is  not  unlike  the  difference  between  polished  antique 
marbles  and  the  deliberately  coarse  chiselling  of  Rodin's  burghers. 
And  it  has  its  reward  in  the  same  sort  of  nervous  picturesqueness 
that  comes  with  modern  European  draughtsmanship — the  masculine 
breadth  of  Rembrandt  and  Velasquez,  and  Manet,  the  brush  magic  of 
Sargent  and  of  Whistler.  Still  more  closely  is  it  like  the  work  of  a 
great  penman  or  an  etcher,  only  with  the  splintery  burr  and  the  split 
edge  carried  to  a  far  greater  scale  of  flexibility  and  thickness.  The 
nearest  actual  touch  to  it  ,in  Western  work  is  the  roughest  split  quill 
drawing  of  Rembrandt.  We  may  say  that  Sesshu's  line  combines 
the  broken  edge  and  the  velvety  gloss  of  a  dry-pointist's  proof,  with 
the  unrivalled  force  and  resource  of  a  Chinese  caligrapher's  brush — 
Godoshi  and    Whistler   rolled  into  one. 

But  though  Sesshu's  line  dominates  mass  and  colour,  his  notan 
taken  as  a  whole — that  is,  notan  of  line  as  well  as  notan  of  filled 
space — is  the  richest  of  anybody's  except  Kakei's.  In  Kakei,  line  is 
continually  breaking  down  into  crumbly  masses,  as  elements  disintegrate 
through  radial  loss.  The  light  plays  into  these  masses  like  sunlight 
through  young  leaves,  and  warm  mists  join  in  the  dance,  and  wet 
rocks  glisten,  and  middle  greys  spray  coolness,  until  we  know  how 
the  world  would  look  if  it  were  made  of  silver.  But  Sesshu  is  more 
"  spare  ot  flesh, "  as  the  Chinese  would  say  ;  the  structure  is  the 
architecture.  Nevertheless  his  lines  are  so  thick  that  they  carry  great 
notan  value  in  their  masses,  which  thus  serve  as  something  more 
than  salient  accents.  By  cunningly  varying  his  strokes  as  dark  and 
light,  more  than  half  the  splendour  of  Kakei's  notan  is  achieved, 
though  with  a  harder  glitter.  The  interstices  can  now  be  spread  with 
a  scale  of  greys  or  shot  with  dazzling  laminas  of  light,  without 
sacrificing  the  claims  of  either  delineation  or  sparkle.  It  is  true  that 
Sesshu  often  disdains  to  avail  himself  of  obvious  notan  prettinesses, 
and  becomes  as  austere  and  daringly  monotonous  in  tone  as  Whistler 
in    his    most    esoteric    etchings,    or — to  take  a  sister    art — as    Brahms  in 


Sesshu's  Jurojin,  or  "Spirit  of  Longevity." 
The  chief  treasure  in  the  collection  of  Marquis 
Hachisuka. 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN  JAPAN  83 

his  caviare  "  grey  passages."  Kakei  or  Bayen  never  do  this  ;  they 
are  as  universally  "  decorative  "  as  a  Greek  frieze.  Mokkei  sometimes 
does  it  ;  but  then  notan  is  the  point  in  which  he  is  temperamentally 
most  deficient.  Ririomin,  too,  though  he  had  notan  of  line,  treated 
notan    of  mass    in    his    monochrome    work    with    scant    interest. 

One  other  greatest  quality  Sesshu  possesses  in  large  measure,  and 
that  is  "  spirit."  By  this  first  of  the  Chinese  categories  is  meant  the 
degree  in  which  a  pictured  thing  impresses  you  as  really  present  and 
permeated  with  a  living  aura  or  essence.  The  men  you  meet  on  the 
street  are  only  tactually  real,  their  personality  spreads  not  a  hair's 
breadth  beyond  their  coats.  But  now  and  then  you  meet  such  a  great 
man  that  you  cannot  nail  him  to  an  outline,  but  find  him  diffusing 
himself  into  a  rich  atmosphere  or  halo  of  character,  so  that  he  carries 
a  pungent  reality  for  the  soul.  This  is  the  kind  of  force  with  which 
Sesshu  presents  his  figures,  his  portraits,  even  his  birds  and  his  land- 
scapes. They  seize  upon  the  impressionable  side  of  the  soul,  and 
thus  become  far  more  real  than  could  a  world  of  photographs. 
Their  "mentality"  burns  like  an  acid;  you  are  held  before  them 
as  if  that  etcher's  needle  were  holding  live  wires  to  your  heart  ; 
you  rise  from  their  presence  breathless  and  purified  as  if  you  had 
learned  to  breathe  some  new  ether.  Such  is  the  highest  quality  of 
Chinese  art — "  Ki-in."  Doubtless  all  things  in  nature,  even  bad  men, 
can  be  seen  to  be  iridescent  with  this  aura,  if  only  the  vision  be 
sharp  enough.  It  is  this  elixir  through  which  poets  in  all  ages 
have  transmuted  the  world.  This  is  why  even  the  rocks  and  trees 
of  Sesshu  strike  you  with  a  sort  of  unearthly  force,  as  if  more  real 
than  reality.  In  such  quality  Sesshu  stands  with  Godoshi,  Phidias, 
Ririomin,  Michel  Angelo,  Nobuzane,  Velasquez,  Kakei,  Manet  and 
Mokkei. 

Why,  then,  if  he  has  such  transcendent  line,  notan  and  spirit, 
should  we  not  put  Sesshu  first  among  the  artists  of  Eastern  Asia } 
It  is  hard  to  answer  that  :  and  yet  we  do  not  so  place  him.  Is 
it  not  because,  though  what  we  have  called  the  brutality  gives  him 
transcendent  force,  in  the  more  delicate,  internal  and  infinitely  subtle 
balances  of  taste  lies  a  more  spiritual  strength  of  tissue  that  Sesshu 
lacks }  Sesshu  is  no  great  colourist,  for  instance.  Though  his  soft 
tints  that  sometimes  modify  the  monochrome  help  the  liveliness,  he 
cannot    make  them   brilliant  without  becoming  repulsive.     Even   in   the 


84       EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

very  power  of  his  line  and  notan  we  miss  a  certain  infinite  withdraw- 
ing that  conscious  power  lacks.  Can  we  help  recognizing  that  in  the 
ultimate  classic,  whether  of  Greece  or  China,  in  Phidias  and  perhaps 
to  a  less  degree  in  Ririomin,  the  infinity  of  the  balances  just  requires 
a  certain  perfection  of  polish  ?  Where  informing  essence  penetrates 
to  the  very  finger  tips,  strength  does  not  lower  but  completes  itself 
through  grace.  Sesshu,  one  might  say,  is  over-masculine  ;  even 
perhaps  as  Rembrandt  is  over-masculine.  Were  he  to  have  com- 
bined a  little  more  of  the  bi-sexuality  of  a  Bodhosattwa,  he  might 
have  reached  such  a  height  that,  as  in  Godoshi's  Kwannon,  we  should 
hardly  care  to  inquire  as  to  the  sex  in  his  soul.  Sesshu  probably 
stands  sixth  on   the  list  of  Asiatic   masters,   but  not  first. 

It  is  useless  to  attempt  here  any  exhaustive  enumeration  of  the 
existing  masterpieces  of  Sesshu  ;  we  shall  have  mostly  to  confine  our- 
selves to  the  all  too  few  which  we  illustrate.  Among  his  finest 
Buddhist  figures  are  the  large  Shaka,  Monju  and  Fugen,  belonging 
to  Mr.  Kawasaki,  the  set  of  Rakan  at  Daitokuji,  and  the  several 
Rakan  owned  by  Mr.  Freer.  The  three  deities  may  be  said  to 
combine  the  qualities  of  Ririomin  and  Mokkei.  The  Rakan  that  we 
reproduce  from  Mr.  Freer's  has  a  softer,  less  splintery  stroke  than 
usual.  Sesshu's  Kwannon  saving  a  victim  from  a  robber  has  a  similar 
composition  to  the  striking  Vittore  Pisano  in  the  National  Gallery  at 
London.  Of  the  portraits  his  Daruma,  formerly  owned  by  Count 
Saisho,  the  governor  of  Nara,  is  the  most  intense.  He  has  drawn 
every  detail  of  hair  and  beard  with  his  most  nervous,  etching-like 
touch.  In  some  of  the  Central  Asian  types  which  he  sketched  in  China 
he  has  given  us  photographic  impressions  of  modern  Russian  tartars. 
Some  of  his  roughest  works  are  executed  in  hardly  more  than  two 
strokes.  On  the  other  hand,  his  finest  figure  piece  is  a  most  elaborate 
Jurojin  in  colour  upon  silk,  which  apparently  he  executed  for  the 
Ming  Emperor  in  China.  At  least,  this  great  painting,  which  is  now 
the  chief  treasure  of  Marquis  Hachisuka's  collection,  has  a  romantic 
history.  It  was  brought  back  from  the  palace  of  the  Corean  King  by 
Kato  Kiyomasa,  after  his  troops  had  occupied  Seoul  about  1595.  The 
supposition  is  that  it  had  been  presented  to  the  king  by  the  Chinese 
Emperor.  On  the  other  hand,  we  know  that  Yoshimasa  was  in  close 
correspondence  with  the  King  of  Corea  about  the  time  that  Sesshu 
went   to    Ming.      The  picture  bears  the  signature  "  Sesshu,"   so  that  if 


Detail  of  Stork  and  Plum  Screen. 
By  Sesshu. 


One  of  the  Pair  of  Shubun  Landscape  Screens. 
FenoUosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston. 


Great  Screen  r,v  Si:s>in-. 

Formerly  owned  by  Mr.  Waggoner,  of  Washington, 
now  in  the  collection  of  -Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 


k 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN  JAPAN  85 

it  ante-dates  the  return   from  Ming    it  disproves   the   legend  concerning 
the  name.     The  description  of  this  picture  merits  a  separate  paragraph. 

It  represents  an  old,  old  man  with  long  grey  eyebrows  and  beard, 
and  with  bent  back,  walking  amid  a  tangle  of  leafy  pine  and  bamboo, 
and  of  the  flowering  plum.  He  wears  on  his  head  a  tall  purple  horse- 
hair cap,  and  carries  in  his  hand  a  long  heavily-knotted  stick.  His 
pet  deer  smells  about  his  feet  for  the  magic  mushroom  that  is  growing 
out  of  the  rocks.  His  long  yellow  garment  trimmed  with  brown  fur 
contrasts  with  the  variable-plum  lining  of  his  mantle.  This  is  Sesshu's 
most  elaborate  figure  piece,  both  in  minuteness  and  fulness  of  line,  and 
in  colour.  Its  symbolism,  too,  is  mostly  of  the  setting,  giving  the 
spirit  of  Longevity  its  least  abstract  meaning  and  its  most  poetic 
potency.  For  here,  we  may  say,  is  nature  personified,  the  same 
old,  mysterious,  kindly  nature,  thousands,  nay,  tens  ot  thousands,  or 
years  old,  the  spirit  of  life,  young  too  though  it  be  old,  blossoming 
anew  every  spring  into  eternal  freshness  and  beauty.  It  is  Merlin 
entangled  with  the  very  enchantments  he  weaves  ;  the  incredibly  old 
face  smiling  like  a  wise  St.  Nicholas  ;  Natura  naturans.  I  have  com- 
pared and  contrasted  it  with  Botticelli's  idea  of  Flora,  Vitality  as  a  gay 
young  maid,  decked  with  and  embowered  in  the  rose  nature  she  exhales  ; 
but  in  this  Chinese  conception  we  have  added  the  elements  of  eternity, 
and  of  the  kindly  wisdom  of  the  happily  aged.  Artistically,  the  com- 
plexity of  line  is  not  inferior  to  the  large  figures  of  Ririomin,  though 
different  in  spacing  and  rhythm.  The  far-away  smile  seems  almost 
worthy  of  Da  Vinci.  Here  indeed  is  a  supreme  artistic  flowering  of 
Zen  thought. 

In  bird  and  flower  pieces  also  Sesshu  ranges  from  the  extreme  of 
suggestion  and  condensation,  as  in  the  Boston  blackbird  poised  upon  a 
spray,  to  the  complication  of  the  great  stork  entangled  in  the  wild 
plum  tree  and  the  river  grasses  which  was  copied  by  Yasunobu  in  the 
17th  century  from  a  Choshu  screen.  Here  the  lines  are  as  many  and 
as  carefully  constructed  from  point  to  point,  as  in  a  Greek  frieze. 
In  European  flower  work  we  leave  much  of  the  effect  to  chance  ; 
but  this  is  a  cunning  piece  of  pictorial  architecture.  Apparently  as 
tangled  as  nature's  luxuriance,  at  no  point  is  there  a  trace  of  confusion. 
The  great  bird  with  its  feathers  radiating  like  the  folds  of  an  archaic 
Greek  chlamys^  steps  proudly  like  a  lord  through  his  demesne.  Frost 
crisps    the    edges    of  the    large,    sparse  "plum-coins."     A  wild    camellia 


86       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

bursts  into  a  single  note  of  scarlet  streaked  with  snow.  It  is  hardly 
less  mysterious  than  the  Jurojin.  A  great  screen  of  Sesshu  in  the 
Fenollosa  collection,  which  came  from  the  collection  of  the  Tokugawa 
princes  of  Kishu,  is  a  more  rounded  and  frankly  Mokkei-ish  piece  of 
Zen  symbolism.  The  centre  explodes  branches  of  pine  and  rains  leafless 
willow,  the  male  and  female  principles  from  which  worlds  are  ,built. 
Iron  bands  of  spiral  parasite  curb  the  huge  limbs,  quite  as  the  habits 
which  we  allow  to  build  upon  us  turn  about  and  choke  us.  In  this 
world,  the  Soul,  typified  by  a  white  heron,  is  pursued  by  cosmic 
and  personal  enemies,  the  wild  hawk  which  turns  to  strike,  belly 
upwards.  Other  hawks  wait  with  glaring  eyes  upon  the  branches.  The 
waters  of  a  stream  roll  down,  even  as  tears  and  time  flow.  The  timid 
soul  seeks  shelter,  as  a  religious,  under  a  roof  of  lotus  leaves,  or  flies 
away  to  some  fairy  world  on  the  wings  of  conjugal  love,  like  the 
mandarin  ducks  in  the  upper  left-hand  corner.  Meanwhile  the  old 
philosopher  owl  sits  blinking  on  his  twig  at  the  right,  quite  oblivious 
of  the  tragedy  that  is  being  perpetrated  beneath  him.  What  a  symbolic 
picture  of  life,  illustrating  Kakki's  words,  not  pedantic,  but  perfectly 
fused  into  a  fine  natural  picture! 

/in  landscape  Sesshu's  finest  remains  are  on  screens,  or  In  the  form 
of  panoramic  rolls  of  Chinese  scenery.  The  finest  of  these  latter  are 
in  the  great  collection  of  Prince  Mori  of  Choshu,  by  whom  I  was  allowed 
to  photograph  them.  Here  the  variety  of  subject  and  composition  is 
endless.  Among  the  finest  passages  are  the  monasteries  perched  on 
cold  rocks  and  fanned  by  pines,  and  the  forests  where  the  leafless  trees 
actually  disappear  into  the  west  without  our  knowing  where.  There 
is  no  hocus-pocus  about  this,  the  lines,  trank  as  if  etched,  growing 
fainter  and  thinner  and  sparser  till,  as  imperceptibly  as  in  nature,  they  are 
lost  altogether.  Sesshu  loves  old  decayed  posts,  whose  rotting  hulks 
lie  half  concealed  by  river  grasses,  and  roofs  sag  under  their  weight  of 
tiles._^i  Some  of  his  simple  rustic  scenes,  relying  chiefly  on  scratchy  lines, 
remind  us  of  charcoal  studies  by  Millet.  Again  he  is  tempestuous, 
treating  mountains  like  tossing  waves,  as  in  the  great  screen  formally 
owned  by  Mr.  Waggener  of  Washington,  but  now  in  Mr.  Freer's 
collection.  <(Here,  deliberately  discarding  sensuous  notan,  he  makes  cliffs- 
planes  succeed  each  other  for  thousands  of  feet  in  almost  identical  tone, 
yet  clearly  distinguished  by  some  subtle  veiling  of  texture — quite  as 
Brahms  plays  a  thousand  variations  on  a   central  theme.       The   sharper 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN  JAPAN  87 

etching  of  a  brick  temple  at  the  top  focuses  the  eye.  Great  trees  find 
root  in  the  interstices  of  the  rocky  valleys  below.  Small  dark  ranges 
of  distant  mountains  play  against  each  other  like  tumbling  waves  on 
a  twilight  horizon.  \  Four  great  mountain  landscapes  on  silk  form  a 
treasure  in  Marquis  Kuroda's  collection.  (All  this,  of  course,  is  Chinese 
scenery,  of  which   Sesshu   is  the   greatest   interpreter  after   Kakei.) 

Sesshu  was  the  centre  of  a  great  host  of  pupils,  mostly  Zen  priests, 
of  whom  the  greatest  is  Sesson.  The  fine  Sesson  screens  in  my  former 
collection,  now  at  Boston,  are  of  monkeys  and  black  bamboo,  in  the 
touch  of  Mokkei.  Another  set  of  screens  in  Mr.  Freer's  collection 
shows  a  subtler  study  of  white  and'  black  monkeys  stealing  wild  grapes 
from  a  vine.  Here  the  values  go  beyond  the  breadth  of  the  wildest 
Whistler.  But  the  greatest  of  all  Sesson's  is  the  superb  snow  landscape 
scene,  also  owned  by  Mr.  Freer,  done  with  pale  colour  in  Sesshu's 
pure  shin  (square)  touch.  A  giddy  road  to  a  monastery  cuts  a  huge 
cliif  into  a  natural  bridge.  Below  in  the  centre  nestles  one  of  Sesshu's 
river  villages,  enlarged  from  a  passage  in  a  Mori  panorama  ;  which  is 
not  overpraised  by  saying  that,  if  it  were  by  Sesshu  himself,  we 
should  reckon  it  his  masterpiece.  Nothing  more  sunny,  crystalline, 
pictorially  full  of  basic  balance  between  line  and  notan,  can  be  conceived 
in  Kakei,  Sesshu  or  Turner.  What  infinite  suggestion  such  trans- 
cendent work   will   have   for   future  American   Whistlers  ! 

Shiugetsu  was  another  great  personal  pupil  of  Sesshu's  ;  also  Shuko, 
Unkei,  Yogetsu  and  Soan,  all  exemplified  in  Boston.  Of  Sesshu's 
greatest  contemporaries,  Soami  and  Keishoki  came  out  of  Geiami's 
Kinkakuji  school,  Tobun  and  Sotan  had  been  pupils  of  Shiubun  at 
Sokokuji.  Soami  is  more  effeminate  than  his  ancestors,  reducing  the 
softer  sides  of  Mokkei's  work  to  a  kind  of  formula.  Keishoki,  who 
often  worked  for  Kamakura,  went  over  to  something  like  the  square 
style  of  Sesshu.  Tobun  has  luminous  brown  ink  like  his  teacher.  But 
Sotan  is  probably  the  greatest  landscapist,  and  nearest  to  an  original 
Sung  genius  of  all,  after  Sesshu  and  Sesson.  His  great  landscape 
screens,  showing  views  of  the  Shosei  Lake  in  China,  are  in  my  former 
collection.  He  reaches  the  greatest  height  in  coloured  sprays  of  flower 
and  bird,  recalling  rather  Joki,  Kose  and  Choso,  than  the  weaker 
work  of  Shunkio.  A  perfect  example  is  in  Mr.  Freer's  collection 
in  Detroit. 

We  are  conscious  of  having  rushed  too  fast  over  this  great  Ashikaga 


EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE    ART 


period  ;  and,  by  good  rights,  we  ought  to  lead  it  to  its  finish  by- 
appending  a  long  note  upon  the  great  artists  who  followed  Yoshimasa 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  Yoshimasa  had  died  in  1490,  Sesson  in  1494, 
Sesshu  as  late  as  1507.  After  1500  the  whole  power  of  Kioto  painting 
in  the  Hangchow  style  may  be  said  to  have  been  gathered  up  into 
the  genius  of  a  single  professional  family,  the  Kano.  But  these  Kanos 
are  so  prominent,  so  all-subduing,  such  vital  links  with  the  following 
Tokugawa  age,  that  we  are  constrained  to  give  them  now,  the  earlier 
generations  of  them,    a   short   chapter    to   themselves. 


Example  of  his  "  Rough  Style  ' 

IX  Landscape  Work.     By  Sesshu. 


Detail  of  Vanishing  Trees.     By  Sesshu. 
From  the  Mori  Roll. 


Chapter     XIII. 

IDEALISTIC     ART     IN     JAPAN. 

The  Early  Kano. 

HOW  deeply  the   Hangchow   Zen  germ   had  rooted  itself  in  Japan, 
and  especially  in  Kioto,  can  be  seen  by  the  firmness  and  luxuri- 
ance of  its   growth,    long    after    the  artificial    soil  of  Ashikaga 
strength    had    been    removed    from    it.       After    Yoshimasa   the    prestige 
and  wealth  of  his  family  is  wasted  away  in  an  almost  continuous    suc- 
cession   of   local    wars,  Shogun    against  Shogun,    daimio    against    daimio. 
Any    man    might    take    who    could.       The    hegemony    of  the    Ashikaga 
remained  hardly  more  than  nominal.      And  yet,  throughout  their  whole 
decay,  down    to   their  final   deposition  by    the   freebooter,   Nobunaga,  in 
1573,   the  China-nurtured  genius  of  their  Kano  Court   painters,  shed  a 
much-needed  light   upon    their  reigns.      Indeed,  Kano   Motonobu,  head 
of  the    second  generation,   is    often  reckoned    by    modern    native  artists 
i  as   the  greatest   of  Japanese   geniuses,    Sesshu   alone    excepted.      While 
j  we    may    not    quite    concur     in    such    an    estimate,    it    is    true    that    the 
!  vigour  and  quantity  of  his  work  literally    hold    back    the    decay    which 
it   would    be    high    time  to    expect    in    such    an    exotic    school    of  art — 
■.  even   as    his    great  European  contemporary,  Michael  Angelo,   is  holding 
I  back,     single    handed,    like     a   grand    promontory     half    submerged    by 
storms,    the    mediocrity    due    to  a  flippant    and    corrupt    cinquecento. 

The  external  history  of  the  century  is  lurid ;  yet  in  its  latter 
half  it  is  romantic,  and  in  a  minor  sense  epochal.  We  need  not 
follow  the  rude  ambitions  of  soldiers  who  refused  to  be  tamed  by 
poetry.  Red  blood  flowed  in  Japanese  veins,  and  demanded  spilling. 
;  Japan  should  return  to  herself,  after  two  hundred  years  of  Chinese 
'  dreaming,  in  the  nightmare  of  war.  But  in  the  year  1542,  two 
significant  things  happened — Tokugawa  lyeyasu,  the  man  destined  to 
found     Japan's     last     and     greatest    dynasty     of     Shoguns,     was    born. 


90       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

and  more  important,  Japan's  first  contact  with  Europe  came  with 
the  landing  of  Portuguese  upon  the  island  of  Kiushu.  The 
problems  of  the  coming  age  are  to  be  complicated  with  the  romance 
of  Christian  intrigue.  It  is  all  a  part  of  Jesuit  expansion  in  Asia. 
In  the  next  year  the  daimio  of  Bungo  sends  an  ambassador  to 
Portugal,  as  if  he  were  an  independent  king.  European  records  call 
him  "  King  of  Bungo."  He  does  on  a  small  scale  what  Ashikaga 
Yoshimitsu  had  done  on  a  large.  In  1549  "Saint"  Francis  Xavier, 
one  of  the  original  incorporators  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  lands  in 
Japan  as  missionary.  By  1573  a  great  Catholic  Cathedral  is  being 
built  in  Kioto.  Many  of  the  daimios  would  like  to  import  the  new 
spiritual  savour  from  Europe,  as  Yoshimitsu  had  imported  the  Zen 
from  China.  Powerful  Buddhist  monasteries,  especially  the  old  Tendai 
seat  on  Hiyeizan,  take  a  hand  at  once  in  the  dynastic  disputes  and 
against  the  new  religion.      In  short,  the  nation  is  falling  into  anarchy. 

Yet  in  this  very  year,  1550,  out  of  the  anarchy  is  stretched  the 
hand  of  a  powerful  captain  and  administrator.  Ota  Nobunaga,  a  small 
daimio  living  near  Owari,  commences  to  conquer  his  turbulent  peers 
and  take  a  decisive  hand  in  the  Ashikaga  wars.  In  1559  he  first  enters 
Kioto.  In  1568  he  sets  up  Yoshiaki  for  Shogun.  In  1573,  making 
friends  with  the  Christian  party,  he  destroys  the  Buddhist  by  burn- 
ing Enriakuji.  In  1580  the  Honganji  priests  submit  to  him.  With- 
out being  entitled  Shogun  he  now  wields  supreme  administrative 
power.  The  resident  missionaries  and  the  European  monarchs  are  in 
ecstasies  at  the  prospect  of  immediately  christianizing  Japan  through  the 
patronage  of  their  daring  general.  But  in  1582  he  is  assassinated,  and 
his  power  is  assumed  by  one  of  his  generals,  Hideyoshi,  who  had 
originally  been  a  stable-boy.  Tokugawa,  another  of  Nobunaga's  generals, 
remains  in  the  north,  a  quiet  spectator  of  Hideyoshi's  triumph.  In 
1583  one  of  the  daimios  sends  an  ambassador  to  the  Pope.  In 
1586  Hideyoshi  takes  a  higher  title  than  Shogun — ;.<?.,  regent  or 
administrator,  an  officer  of  the  Emperor's  household.  The  great  problem 
is  what  Hideyoshi,  having  the  Buddhists  crushed,  will  do  for  the 
Christians.  In  spite  of  one  of  his  ablest  generals,  Konishi,  being  leader 
of  the  Christians,  he  decides  to  expel  the  missionaries  as  disturbers  of 
national  loyalty.  It  is  a  decisive  moment  for  the  history  of  the  whole 
East,  and  for  the  world.  For  had  those  arrogant  and  corrupt  European 
Courts   then  succeeded  in   subverting  Japan  to   their  nominally  religious 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN   JAPAN  91 

exploitation,  the  great  past  of  both  China  and  Japan  would  probably 
have  been  crushed  out  of  sight,  the  art  certainly  ;  the  contact  of  East 
and  West  would  have  come  before  East  was  ripe  for  self-consciousness 
or  West  capable  of  sympathetic  understanding.  It  would  have  been 
Cortez  and  the  Aztecs  over  again.  The  great  Japan  that  we  know 
to-day,  heading  a  peaceful  reconstruction  of  Asiatic  culture,  would  have 
been  impossible.  In  all  reverence,  I  would  see  the  hand  of  Providence 
in  the  raising  of  a  great  barrier  between  Europe  and  Japan,  with 
just  a  peep-hole  at  Deshima — a  barrier  which  enabled  the  Tokugawa 
Samurai  to  concentrate  forces  of  culture,  and  the  Tokugawa 
populace  to  rise  to  that  measure  of  national  self-consciousness  and  self- 
government  which  have  guaranteed  Japan  equal  competition,  equal 
exchange,  equal  world  building  with  the  West  in  1853,  1868,  1898, 
and   1905. 

Hideyoshi  established  himself  in  imperial  state  at  Osaka,  and  in  his 
golden  palace  of  Fushimi.  He  would  rival  the  gorgeous  surroundings 
of  ancient  Tang  Emperors,  quite  as  his  analogue,  the  French  Napoleon, 
later  conceived  his  Court  as  a  renaissance  of  the  Caesars.  His  great  ships 
are  in  close  touch  with  Siam  and  the  Philippines.  He  invades  Corea 
in  1592,  and  defeats  the  army  of  Ming  that  comes  to  the  rescue.  Hide- 
yoshi snubs  the  decaying  Ming  dynasty,  partly  because  it  is  now  given 
over  to  literary  pedantry,  partly  because  it  is  already  harbouring  the 
Jesuit  missionaries.  In  1597  Hideyoshi  issues  a  second  severer  edict 
against  the  Japanese  Christians,  conquers  Corea  for  a  second  time,  and 
prepares  to  march  his  armies  over  the  Yalu  to  Peking.  It  is  interesting 
to  realize  that  some  of  the  great  battle-grounds  of  the  Japanese  against 
the  Chinese  in  1894,  and  against  the  Russians  in  1904,  had  been 
first  explored  by  their  warriors  300  years  earlier.  But  Hideyoshi 
dies  in  the  following  year.  His  son  Hideyori  succeeds.  English 
and  Dutch  ships  arrive  in  1600,  ready  to  assist  the  Japanese  in 
destroying  Portuguese  and  Spanish.  Then  comes  the  crash,  with 
Tokugawa  lyeyasu  on  top  1 

From  this  brief  sketch  it  is  seen  that  we  may  divide  the  i6th  cen- 
tury, or  rather  the  no  years  after  the  death  of  Yoshimasa,  into  three 
sub-epochs  :— (i)  the  utter  decay,  from  1490  to  Nobunaga's  supremacy 
— about  1560;  (2)  the  Nobunaga  period  from  1560  to  his  death 
in  1582;  (3)  the  Hideyoshi  period  from  1582  to  the  overthrow  of 
Hideyori     in     1600.      It     is     during     the     first     sub-period     that     Kano 

VOL.    II.  G 


92       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

Masanobu  and  Kano  Motonobu  are  the  great  Court  painters  to  the 
Shoguns  ;  during  the  second  that  Kano  Shoyei  succeeds  to  similar 
function  with  Nobunaga  and  during  the  third  that  Yeitoku  becomes 
the  master  decorator  for  the  palaces  of  Hideyoshi.  Their  work,  and 
that  of  their  pupils,  is  the  special   subject  of  this  chapter. 

The  position  of  lay  Court  painter  was  not  absolutely  a  new  thing 
with  the  Kano.  In  a  sense  Noami,  Geiami  and  Soami  had  been  closely 
attached  to  the  persons  of  earlier  Ashikaga.  But  their  status  was  not 
quite  yet  recognized  as  an  organic  part  of  the  Shogun's  officialdom. 
That  a  Shogun  should  have  a  Court  painter — as  a  European  monarch 
should  have  a  Court  jester — was  rather  a  matter  of  taste.  But  after  the 
passing  of  Yoshimasa,  with  the  painter  favourites,  Soami  and  Sotan, 
the  pupil  of  the  latter  and  companion  of  both,  who  had  worked  fori: 
Yoshimasa  in  painting  Ginkakuji,  Kano  Masanobu,  succeeded  in  making' 
himself  indispensable  to  the  succeeding  Ashikaga  dilettanti.  The  great 
geniuses  were  mostly  dead  ;  the  aged  Sesshu  had  retired  to  his  far) 
South ;  the  inflowing  stream  of  Chinese  painting  and  culture  had' 
entirely  ceased.  Only  Kano  Masanobu  and  his  young  sons  combined 
in  themselves  enough  knowledge  and  creative  power  to  preserve  as  a 
living  reality  the  Hangchow  culture  which  their  predecessors  had  won. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  these  men  no  longer  represented  a  great 
vital  movement  common  to  two  nations.  The  movement  was  absolutely 
dead  in  China,  as  we  shall  see  more  specifically  in  Chapter  XV.  It 
was  practically  dead  in  Japan,  also  outside  of  the  Kioto  and  a  few  local; 
camps.  It  was  held  as  a  lonely  and  precious  specialty  by  the  Kano,' 
who  sailed  along  under  the  impetus  acquired  by  Kakei  and  Sesshu,  like 
great  birds  soaring  lazily  from  a  rapid  flight.  This  is  especially  why 
they  became  eclectics  in  style,  since  they  have  the  whole  universe 
of  idealistic  art  to  choose  from  and  incorporate  in  themselves. 

Kano  Masanobu,  the  founder,  rose  from  a  family  that  had  wor 
respectable  notice  as  courtiers  of  literary  culture.  He  had  begun  work 
as  a  painter  under  Oguri  Sotan,  probably  at  Sokokuji.  Though  the 
founder  of  the  Sokokuji  school  had  been  nominally  Josetsu,  we  must  trace  a; 
still  more  powerful  influence  upon  Sotan's  master  from  the  Chinese  Shubur' 
at  Daitokuji.  Sesshu  also,  though  a  fellow-pupil  with  Sotan,  must  have  drawn 
from  the  same  source.  It  was  Sesshu  who  had  introduced  Masanobu  tc 
Yoshimasa  ;  and  therefore  we  may  infer  that  Kano  derived  much  from 
his  priestly  patron   also.     This  Masanobu  may  be  said  to  have  absorbec 


-^ 


Portrait  of  Coxflcius.     By  Kano  Masanolni. 
I  Copv  by  Kano  Tanyu. 

',  Fenbllosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston. 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN   JAPAN  93 

remotely  from  the  two  Shubuns,  directly  from  Sotan,  Soami,  and  Sesshu. 
The   old  quadrilateral  became   a  single   solid    fortress  in   itself. 

Masanobu's  style  may  be  regarded  as  a  type  about  as  high  as 
Sotan's,  with  a  prevailing  squarishness  of  touch,  and  an  architectural 
structure  of  mounting  lines  that  suggests  Bayen  rather  than  any  other 
of  the  Hangchow  men.  The  lines  of  his  inking  are  rather  straight 
and  formal,  and  in  this  respect  he  creates  a  Kano  touch.  His  notan 
is  rich  and  full,  getting  about  as  far  toward  Kakei's  as  Shubun  had 
done.  In  colour  he  uses  only  thin  tint,  but  a  little  heavily,  and  in 
this  respect  seems  to  have  borrowed  from  Geiami  and  Keishoki.  His 
strongest  point  is  probably  conception  ;  for  he  can  at  his  best  present 
us  with  spirits  almost  as  powerful  as  those  of  Sesshu.  There  is  little 
of  the  demoniac  in  him  however  ;  he  soars  calm,  and  sane,  and  clear, 
on  sufficient  but  not  superhuman  inspiration.  He  painted  almost  equally 
well  in  all  three  categories  of  human  figures,  birds  and  flowers,  and 
landscape.  Nothing  of  his  great  mural  work,  except  a  few  screens, 
now  remains. 

Lest  it  should  seem  that  I  have  somewhat  belittled  Masanobu's 
genius,  let  me  at  once  defer  to  the  high  testimony  of  his  work. 
In  figures  we  have  his  Fukurokujin  and  boy  attendants  in  the 
Bigelow  collection  at  Boston,  which  is  probably  a  late  work,  and 
done  in  a  glossy  flowing  line  derived  from  Mokkei  through  Sesshu 
and  Keishoki.  His  great  painting  in  colours,  also  at  Boston,  of  the 
three  founders  was  very  celebrated  in  Tokugawa  days,  and  has  already 
been  referred  to  as  a  possible  copy  from  Bayen.  The  Monju, 
reproduced  here,  is  a  beautiful  and  gracious  figure.  But  finer 
than  all  is  his  portrait  of  Confucius  in  the  Ashikaga  University, 
based  upon  an  important  Sung  statue,  and  of  which  Kano  Tanyu's 
careful  copy  we  reproduce  from  the  Boston  treasures.  This 
great  heirloom  in  the  family  of  Tanyu's  successors  I  bought  from 
the  last  artist  of  the  line,  Kano  Tambi,  in  1882.  'The  face  is  of 
such  a  high  intellectual  type  that  in  spite  of  its  disadvantages  in 
eschewing  modelling  and  shadow,  and  of  relying  on  delineation  in 
thick  ink,  it  owns  its  own  for  powerful  individuality  even  when 
photographed  side  by  side  with  such  a  finished  portrait  as  that  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci   by   himself. 

In  birds  and  flowers,  his  kawagarasu  bird  on  a  bamboo  spray,  in  ink, 
from  the  ancestral  collection  of  Marquis  Hachisuka,  is  very  noble.      The 

G  2 


94       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

famous  screen  of  Shinjuin  at  Daitokuji  shows  a  great  stork  stepping 
among  grandly-spaced  rocks  and  trees.  Doubtless  he  did  flowers  in 
colour,    also,   like   Sotan. 

In  landscape  he  came  fairly  near  to  Bayen.  The  beautiful  little 
landscape  on  silk,  of  the  banished  Chinese  general,  Osho,  feeding  his 
sheep,  in  the  Fenollosa  collection,  also  bought  in  1882  from  Tambi's 
treasures,  is  very  probably  a  copy  from  Bayen  or  one  of  his  contemporaries. 
Yet  it  already  foreshadows  Motonobu's  composition  of  mountains.  Per- 
haps his  greatest  work  in  landscape  was  the  screen  with  a  Chinese  terrace 
supermounted  with  an  enormous  pine,  which  belonged  in  early  Tokugawa 
days  to  Prince  Kinoshita,  and  was  then  copied  by  Kano  Yasunobu.  The 
great  zig-zag  pine,  like  a  triumphant  Bayen  creation,  cuts  in  magnificent 
counterpoint  the  vertical  columns  of  distant  mountains.  The  law  of 
spacing  in  this  composition  is  supremely  illustrated.  It  is  hardly  inferior 
to  Sesshu  at  his  best. 

Masanobu  died    in    1490. 

Kano  Masanobu,   whose    Chinese    name    was    Yusei,    had    two    sons, 
Motonobu,    also    called  Yeisen,   and   Utanosuke,   whose  nobu    name   was 
Yukinobu.       This  use   of  a  nobu  name,  which   may   be  translated  either 
"  having  faith    in,"    or    more  appropriately    "  narrator    of,"    descends    as 
a    custom    down    through   sixteen   generations  of  Kano  patriarchs  to  the 
present    day.        From  Motonobu    onward    the    leading    line    also    had    a 
literary   or  priestly   name   beginning  with  Yei — "eternal."     Thus  Moto- 
nobu  Yeisai  may  be   read  "  Faith   in   the  Ultimate,   Eternal   Magician," 
and  "  Yeishin  Yasunobu,"  his  great-great-grandson,  may  be  supposed  to  \ 
mean  "  Eternal  Truth,  sweet  tale-teller  of  peace."       The  latter's   niece,  j 
"Yukinobu,"   could    be  prettily    called    "Whisperer  of  the    Snow,"    and; 
my  teacher  "Tomonobu"   is  "one  who  talks  of  friendship."*  \ 

Kano  Masanobu  still  held  about  his  person  and  style  the  flavour  of' 
Ashikaga  greatness.  But  Motonobu,  who  must  have  been  born  about : 
1480,  found  himself  at  an  early  age  practically  alone,  the  sole  em-j 
bodiment  of  artistic  insight  and  power.  He  spans,  with  a  long  bridge 
of  fifty  years,  the  gap  between  Sesshu  and  Nobunaga.  He  was  solej 
critic,   sole  creator  (barring   the   brother)    of  his   day.     All  that   Kaifong ' 

*  Editor's    Note. — During  these    ycirs    of    great   activity   among   the    yet    remaining 
artists  of  Japan,  Ernest  Fenollosa   was   formally  adopted  into  the  Kano  family,  and  given  ■ 
the    name    "  Kano    Yeitan " — the    latter,    a    personal    name    having    the    significance    of 
"Eternal    research" — or    "Endless    seeking." 


MoNju.     In  the  Boston  Museum. 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN   JAPAN  95 

and  Hangchow  had  been,  all  that  Kinkakuji  and  Glnkakuji  had 
fostered,  or  as  much  of  it  as  could  be  held  in  a  single  brain,  was 
summed  up  in  him.  His  styles  are  a  final  consolidation  of  its  leading 
styles.  In  his  squarer  touches  {shin)  he  touches  Bayen  through  the 
mediums  of  Sesshu,  Sotan,  and  his  father.  In  his  softer  touch  {so)  he 
absorbs  Mokkei  through  the  avenues  of  Noami  and  Soami.  In  his 
colossal  birds  and  flowers  he  derives  from  Joki  through  Sotan.  In 
his  scratchiest  style  he  consolidates  Riokai,  Giokkwan,  and  Sesshu. 
In  his  lay  figures  he  mounts  almost  to  Bayen  and  Kiso,  giving  us 
the  most  normal  views  of  Sung  gentlemanly  life.  In  his  Buddhist 
figures  he  almost  touches  Ririomin  and  Godoshi,  but  with  the  helpful 
finger  of  Cho  Densu.  Along  all  these  lines  he  selects,  he  confirms,  he 
consolidates.  His  style  is  almost  as  solid,  personal,  and  flexible  as 
Sesshu's.  It  is  perhaps  a  little  mannered,  but  the  number  and  variety 
of  his  manners  are  so  great  that  we  hardly  feel  the  limitation.  It  is 
the  perfection  of  technique  ;  never  a  bit  of  awkwardness  intrudes,  as 
sometimes  in  Yoshimitsu's  day  ;  the  composition  is  always  dignified, 
scholarly,  full.  It  is  really  through  him  chiefly  that  the  early  Kano 
school  merits  such  special  notice.  We  can  say  of  his  life-work, 
as  compared  with  previous  Ashikaga  painters,  that,  while  the  men  of 
Yoshimitsu's  and  Yoshimochi's  day  were  climbing  to  Hangchow,  and 
while  the  men  of  Yoshimasa's  day,  especially  Sesshu,  had  got  there, 
and  sat  on  the  same  bench  with  the  Chinese,  Kano  Motonobu,  aim- 
ing neither  to  climb  nor  to  share,  simply  establishes  a  Neo-Hangchow 
universe  where  he  chooses  to  reign  alone.  Whatever  be  the  absolute 
merits  of  his  work — and  they  are  great — his  service  to  posterity  in 
making  of  himself  an  open  door  to  the  great  past  of  two  nations  is 
incalculable.  Unfortunately  the  enormous  collection  of  copies  from 
Chinese  originals  accredited  to  him  and  to  his  pupils  was  destroyed  by 
a  Kioto  conflagration  early  in  the  seventeenth  century.  If  Motonobu  is 
epochal,   he  alone   defines   the   epoch. 

Going  a  step  further  into  generalization,  we  may  say  that  three 
men — Soga  Shubun,  Sesshu  and  Motonobu — literally  span  with  their 
lives  the  ages  of  Ashikaga  creation.  Here  is  the  ultimate  line  of 
descent  from  Sung,  far  more  legitimate  and  genuine  than  the  bastard 
Ming  or  the  pretended  "  Bunjinga "  copies  of  Tsing.  Finally,  Sesshu 
is  the  perfect  air  that  Motonobu,  in  his  youth,  breathed.  Though  he 
never  went  to  China,  China  is  a  reality  to    him,  because    he    can    wear 


96       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE     ART 

without  strain  Sesshu's  glasses.  The  infinity  and  locality  of  Sesshu's 
myriad  sketches  are  at  his  disposal.  He  holds  all  Ashikaga  scholarship 
in  his  memory.  The  whole  round  of  Zen  symbolism  permeates  his  work. 
But  there  is  another  root  of  Motonobu's  vividness;  though  intent 
on  Chinese  subjects  and  basing  his  technique  on  copying  masterpieces, 
he  refreshed  his  elementary  knowledge  of  form  by  sketching  from 
Japanese  nature.  It  is  a  pity  that  all  such  sketches  made  before 
Tanyu  are  destroyed.  It  is  true  that  all  his  passages  of  rock,  tree  and 
waterfall  fit  perfectly  into  a  Chinese  mosaic,  and  do  not  look  much 
like  anything  in  Japan  except  nooks  of  gardens  built  in  the  Hang- 
chow  manner ;  yet  we  have  record  that  he  tested  by  vision  the 
rocket-spiral    of  his    pines    and    the    notan    truth    of   his    mists. 

A  typical  example  of  Motonobu's  figure  work  in  monochrome  is 
afforded  by  the  three  Chinese  gentlemen  of  Sung  owned  in  Boston. 
The  perfection  of  touch  and  spacing  is  notable  ;  not  a  quiver  of  the  I 
impression  is  left  to  chance  ;  it  is  all  as  perfect  as  sculpture.  His 
version  of  the  "Three  Founders,"  owned  by  Mr.  Dwight  Davis,  of 
St.  Louis,  is  equally  perfect,  though  less  "  cuneiform "  in  manner. 
The  drawing  and  copying  of  the  faces  shows  Motonobu's  finest  work. 
Many  great  figure  screens  were  copied  by  Yasunobu — large  groups  of 
Chinese  gentlemen,  philosophers  and  sennin  with  wild  landscape  back- 
ground. His  great  white  Kwannon  in  Godoshi  style  has  been 
noticed.  In  1882  I  visited,  in  company  with  Kano  Tomonobu, 
Miokakuji  of  Kioto,  where  we  paid  our  respects  at  Motonobu's  tomb, 
and  colossal  coloured  Nehango  by  him,  which  rivalled  the  great 
"canvasses"  of  Cho  Densu  at  Tofukuji.  In  his  earlier  work  his  strokes 
are  like  wedges,  but  more  carefully  split  than  Sesshu's.  In  his  later 
work  the  angled  wedges  of  garments  become  executed  in  a  smaller, 
more  careless  running  stroke,  exemplified  in  Mr.  Freer's  fan  of 
the  sages. 

Motonobu's  "square"  bird  and  flower  passages  on  silk  were  often 
quite  brilliantly  coloured,  though  on  paper  screens  they  were  generally 
only  tinted.  In  his  softer  Mokkei-ish  style  he  loved  to  enrich  landscape 
backgrounds  with  splendid  groups  of  birds,  leaves  and  petals  in  glowing 
ink.  Supreme  examples  of  such  work  were  exhibited  at  the  first 
Tokio  loan  exhibition  in  1882,  in  two  six-panel  screens,  which  I  photo- 
graphed. There  exists  one  panel  where  a  lovely  notan  contrast  is 
afforded  by    the  white    herons  on  the  willow  and    the  blackbird  on  the 


THE   THREE   FOUNDERS 

BY    KANO    MOTONOBU 
Fenellosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston 


I 


4 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN  JAPAN  97 

rock.  The  "colour"  is  enhanced  by  the  general  presence  of  snow, 
which  is  not  painted  with  our  impasto,  but  "  left "  by  tints  that 
surround,  with  incredible  skill,  its  many-formed  masses.  The  snow 
is  therefore  in  tone  with  all  the  local  lights.  Here,  too,  the  perfect 
spray  of  the  black  bamboo  leaves  lead  thought  back  to  the  early 
experiments  of  Toba  and  Bunyoka.  How  boldly  the  retiring  of  the 
middle  distances  is  effected  through  texture  alone  ! 

Typical  ink  shin  landscapes  of  Motonobu  on  silk  are  the  twelve 
fine  scenes  painted  on  panels  of  screens  owned  by  Prince  Mori  ;  these 
retain  something  of  Masanobu's  manner.  A  fine  glossy  example  of 
his  Mokkei  mannerism  in  landscape  is  shown  in  one  of  Mr.  Freer's 
kakemono.  Here,  as  so  often  in  fine  ancient  works,  the  golden  quality  of 
the  old  paper  throws  forward  the  melting  ink  into  a  sort  of  violet 
atmosphere.  The  great  set  of  landscapes  held  at  Mioshinji,  Kioto, 
formerly  mural  decorations  of  reception  rooms,  exhibits  quite  a  range 
from  the  Ming  shin  lines  to  the  scratchy  impressions  that  suggest 
Giokkai.  These  have  been  reproduced  in  rather  poor  process  printing 
by  the  Shimbi  Tai  Kwan  Company.  A  specially  fine  "  scratchy  "  example 
is  Mr.  Freer's  large  square  paper  kakemono.  There  are  no  screens  by 
Motonobu  at  Boston,  for  in  all  the  twenty-eight  years  of  my  collecting 
and  studying  I  have  been  in  vain  on  the  look-out  to  obtain  a  large  mural 
piece  by  this  artist,  whom  the  Tokugawa  Japanese  prized  next  to  Sesshu. 

Other  more  highly-coloured  manners  by  Motonobu,  used  for  effective 
mural  decoration  in  palaces,  were  inventions  of  his  own,  though 
remotely  based  on  coloured  Sung  work.  Such  were  particularly  his 
great  compositions  of  Tartars  hunting,  in  wild  yellow  landscapes,  where 
the  oak  trees  bristle  with  clumps  of  spiky  leaves  that  recall  chestnut 
burrs.  The  rocks  are  touched  in  little  flaky  dots  that  form  straight 
lines.  The  colouring  here  vibrates  between  violet  and  warm  yellow, 
throwing  up  the  Tartar  costumes  and  tents  of  bright  red  and  green. 
There  are  two  fine  panels  of  this  style  in  Boston.  The  later  Yeitoku 
school  of  Hideyoshi  partly  grows  out  of  such  experiments.  Sometimes 
he  carried  the  mural  style  farther,  to  the  point  of  encrusting  the  masses 
in  solid  chalk,  powdered  azure,  and  gold  ;  as  if  they  were  a  Buddhist 
subject.  Examples  were  the  screens  of  waves  and  wild  ducks  formerly 
owned  by  Mr.  Yamanaka  of  Osaka.  This  was  a  kind  of  impressionism 
which  later  had  its  weight  upon  both  the  panoramas  of  Yeitoku  and  the 
Tokugawa  school  of  Korin. 


98       EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

We  come  now  to  a  phase  of  Motonobu's  life  and  work — I  had 
almost  said  of  Ashikaga  life  and  work — which  I  have  deliberately  omitted 
up  to  this  point  in  order  not  to  confuse  the  true  impression  of  the 
main  epochs.  Yet  things  are  never  so  simple  as  we  have  to  make  our 
description  of  them.  The  student  cannot  take  in  masses  of  divergent 
fact,  and  relate  them  in  a  true  scale  of  values,  without  proceeding  by 
successive  steps.  In  the  words  of  a  good  teacher,  or  in  the  chapters 
of  an  educational  book,  the  layers  of  truth  have  to  develop  for  the 
mind  one  behind  another,  quite  as  the  strata  of  distances  do  to  the 
eye  in  a  good  painting.  Now  it  is  seldom  true  that,  though  we  divide 
the  history  of  Chinese,  Japanese,  or  European  art  into  separate  creative 
epochs,  the  pungent  life  of  one  age  entirely  disappears  in  the  new 
phases  of  its  successor.  Rather  does  a  thin  parallel  stream  of  earlier 
influence  trickle  down  through  the  ages,  unnoticed  in  its  day  ;  or,  to 
use  a  different  figure,  a  smouldering  fire  which  may  some  day  be  blown 
up  into  rekindling,  refuses  to  be  extinguished.  In  this  way  some 
traditions  of  Roman  mural  art  persisted  in  obscure  Italian  churches 
side  by  side  with  the  triumphant  Byzantine,  until  the  genius  of  Giotto 
at  a  less  prejudiced  day  unlocked  it.  So  we  have  already  seen  the 
original  sculptural  talent  of  the  Japanese,  that  best  expressed  itself  in 
the  early  Tempei  style  of  Nara,  never  quite  eliminated,  but  ready  to 
spring  into  a  modified  life  under  the  touch  of  Jocho  in  the  tenth 
century,  and  Wunkei  in  the  twelfth.  Its  few  drops  of  influence  had 
not  quite  dried  up  in  the  ateliers  of  Kioto  in  1882.  So  Kose 
religious  painting  of  the  second  period  persisted  in  a  precarious  and 
secondary  life  side  by  side  with  the  ruling  Tosa  of  the  third.  So,  too, 
a  trickle  of  Zen  influence,  in  essence  spiritually  subvertive  of  the  whole 
feudal  structure  of  the  dominant  Hojo,  kept  Zen  temples  and  Zen  art 
moist  in  mossy  nooks  during  the  fiery  fever  of  Kamakura  feuds  and 
Tosa  battle-pieces. 

Now,  too,  we  have  to  see  how  the  consolidated  Tosa-Kose-Shiba 
art  of  the  end  of  the  third  Japanese  period  fared,  though  in  a  most 
meagre  minority,  in  its  efforts  to  perpetuate  itself  by  sheer  force  of 
habit  through  the  dense,  revolutionary  and  Chinese  mass  of  Ashikaga 
idealism.  It  is  seldom  that  new  legislation  can  utterly  annihilate  an 
opposition.  And  so,  though  Japanese  life  and  art  under  the  Kioto 
Shoguns  literally  underwent  that  most  stupendous  transformation  from 
violent     individualism     to    ecstatic    absorption    in    the    brotherhood    of 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN   JAPAN  99 

nature  loving — from  ultra  Japanese  character  to  the  thickest  kind  of 
Chinese  veneering — which  I  have  described  in  the  last  chapter,  the 
obscure  descendants  of  Tosa  geniuses  did  perpetuate  a  trace  of  former 
feeling  under  the  occasional  patronage  of  the  Imperial  Court,  of  the 
non-Zen  Buddhist  temples,  and  of  some  unreconstructed  country 
daimios.  Thus  we  know,  if  we  shall  trust  the  Sumiyoshi  genealogy, 
of  a  Yukihide,  his  son  Hirochika,  and  others,  who  give  us  a  still 
more  weakened  phase  of  their  family  manufacture  even  into  the 
fifteenth  century.  Tosa  and  water  !  In  Yoshimasa's  day,  and  in  fact 
during  the  whole  last  half  of  the  second  Ashikaga  century,  the  son  of 
Hirochika,  Tosa  Mitsunobu,  stood  out  alone  against  a  Hangchow 
world,  and  won  a  certain  measure  of  fame  due  to  his  long  service  to 
the  Emperor,  and  to  a  certain  picturesqueness  in  the  landscape  portions 
of  his  somewhat  cramped  style.  During  the  sixteenth  century  there 
is  a  pretence  in  the  Tosa  annals  of  keeping  up  a  sort  of  family 
continuity  in  an  alleged  son  and  grandson,  variously  called  Mitsunori, 
Mitsunari,  Mitsushige,  and  Mitsumochi.  The  truth  is,  however,  that, 
though  the  Tosa-ish  pieces  belonging  to  this  intermediate  date  turn 
up  in  the  junk  shops,  they  no  longer  have  an  individual  manner, 
and  are  reduced  to  a  kind  of  weak  manufactured  illumination.  It 
is  quite  probable  that  the  Tosa  family  organization  even  ceased  to 
exist  in  the  interregnum,  until  a  kind  of  pseudo-revival  was  engineered 
for  it  by  Tokugawa  eclecticism.  Whichever  of  the  two  hypotheses 
prove  to  have  documentary  evidence,  the  central  truth  remains  that 
Tosa  Mitsunobu  was  the  last  Tosa  artist  who  held  in  himself 
continuity  of  vital  descent  from  Kamakura. 

Now  what  all  this  has  to  do  with  Kano  Motonobu  is  as  follows  : 
About  the  year  1500,  the  father,  Masanobu,  had  been  undisputed 
major-domo  for  art  of  the  Shoguns'  Court.  At  the  same  time 
the  aged  Mitsunobu  exercised  a  similar  function  for  the  little  toy 
court  of  the  Mikado.  They  knew  each  other,  greeted  each  other 
in  terms  of  the  most  punctilious  politeness.  The  Kano  patriarch 
had  a  son  just  growing  into  vigorous  manhood.  The  Tosa  patriarch 
had  a  daughter  of  his  later  age  who  was  an  accomplished  artist  in 
her  father's  style.  What  could  be  a  happier  plan  than  for  Kano 
Motonobu  to  marry  Tosa  Mitsuhisa,  and  thus  to  unite  in  a  single 
family  the  traditions  of  two  whole  periods — nay,  of  two  master  races 
of  Asia  ?      This    is    mst    what    happened,     and    it    is    clear    that    from 


loo     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND    JAPANESE    ART 

that  time  onward  the  Kanos  regarded  themselves  as  inheriting 
legitimate  right  to  paint  such  Japanese  scenes  in  semi-Tosa  style  as 
might    become    needed    for    court    or    temple. 

Kano  Mitsuhisa's  signed  work  is  lacking,  but  I  believe  that  we 
probably  have  a  specimen  of  it  in  a  painting  of  a  temple  crowd 
which  I  shall  describe  in  a  later  chapter.  From  this  and  Motonobu's 
work  it  seems  pretty  clear  that  each  of  this  finely-mated  pair  studied  art 
humbly  under  the  other,  so  that  over  the  Japanese  area  of  their  work 
their  two  styles  come  to  coalesce,  though  from  opposite  points.  It 
was  from  this  Tosa  derivation  that  Motonobu  has  come  to  give  us 
a  more  highly  coloured  style,  and  several  large  and  small  compositions 
of  Japanese  life  in  characteristic  costume.  One  of  the  most  celebrated 
of  these  is  the  set  of  makimono  kept  at  Seiroji  near  Kioto, 
depicting  the  alleged  removal  from  India  and  China  to  Japan  of 
the  ancient  statue  of  Buddha  which  we  have  described  in  Chapter 
III.  Here  Motonobu  has  furnished  a  splendid  Tosa-ish  landscape 
background,  in  solid  blue,  green  and  gold,  which  is  interestingly  more 
like  some  Kose  backgrounds  of  altar-pieces  (also  of  favourite  Chinese 
derivation)  than  from  Tosa.  Both  he  and  his  sons  produced  battle 
subjects  of  the  Heike  age.  It  is  true  that  this  phase  of  early  Kano 
work  does  not  rank  of  very  great  contemporary  importance  ;  but 
we  shall  see  that  it  has  a  notable  bearing  upon  the  origin  of 
the    later    Ukiyoye. 

It  is  in  Motonobu's  day,  too,  that  other  signs  appear  of  the  possible 
dawning  of  a  new  Japanese  age.  One  of  these  is  the  renewed  love 
for  lacquer,  which  had  never  wholly  died  out,  but  now  called  for  more 
elaborate  decoration,  mostly  of  Chinese  landscape  or  flowers,  of  gold 
on  gold,  or  gold  on  gold  spotted  black.  Also  it  was  about  1510 
that  the  first  fabrication  of  decorated  porcelains  in  the  new  Ming 
fashion  was  introduced  into  Japan.  All  this  should  show  us  that, 
although  in  Motonobu's  dominant  art  we  have  a  most  vigorous  off- 
shoot, and,  as  his  contemporaries  believed,  culminating  form  of  Chinese 
Hangchow  feeling  —  there  is  just  an  undercurrent  in  the  air,  a 
natural  instinct  of  Japanese  to  return,  after  an  alien  debauch  of  two 
centuries,  to  a  Japanese  way  of  feeling  and  thinking.  In  the  recog- 
nition of  Mitsunobu,  the  marriage  to  Mitsuhisa,  and  the  assumption 
of  Tosa  Court  function,  it  seems  to  come  without  strain.  The 
feverish  wave  of  Zen  propaganda  is  already  broken ;  there    is  no  longer 


IDEALISTIC    ART    IN   JAPAN  loi 

a  sort  of  religious  bias  against  native  art  ;  Motonobu  works  less  as 
a  Chinese  than  a  Japanese  ;  whatever  the  Ashikaga  think,  they  wield 
small  force  ;  the  future  will  depend  upon  what  the  rude  strength  of 
the   revolting    daimios    may    decide. 

Motonobu's  younger  brother,  Utanosuke,  also  called  Yukinobu, 
followed  him  with  loyal  closeness  and  high  sympathetic  genius 
during  the  many  phases  of  his  career.  It  would  be  unfair  to 
Utanosuke  to  represent  him  as  a  mere  shadow  of  his  brother.  It 
is  true  that  he  does  not  produce  a  new  style,  yet  he  derives 
with  some  independence  from  his  father,  and  in  his  proportioning 
of  subject  he  is  different.  We  must  regard  him  as  an  independent 
genius,  related  to  his  central  sun  pretty  much  as  the  work  of  Sesson 
is  related  to  that  of  Sesshu. 

One  of  the  finest  figure  pieces  of  Utanosuke  is  the  six-panel  screen 
owned  by  Mr.  Freer.  This  represents  groups  of  Chinese  gentlemen 
in  a  beautiful  Motonobu-ish  landscape.  They  have  been  having  an 
out-of-door  entertainment.  The  lines  are  softer  than  with  the  elder 
brother.  The  low-toned  harmony  of  tints  on  old  paper  gives  us  those 
lovely  "  wood "  colours  for  which  early  Kano  screens  are  so  noted. 
A  fine  figure  in  pure  black  is  the  Chinese  poet  riding  on  a  buffalo,  in 
the  Boston  Museum.  For  bird  and  flower  screens  Utanosuke  is  even 
more  famous  than  his  brother.  There  are  four  in  the  FenoUosa  collection. 
His  drawing  and  colouring  of  plants  in  these  great  landscape  settings 
is  the  finest  of  Japanese  work  in  Chinese  style.  It  evidently  goes  back, 
not  only  to  Joki  and  Sotan,  but  to  nature.  The  greatest  bird  piece 
now  known  of  Utanosuke  is  the  great  eagle  on  a  pine  branch,  which 
was  formerly  one  of  the  great  pieces  owned  by  Marquis  Hachisuka, 
and  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  treasures  of  the  Fenollosa  collection. 
It  is  possibly  the  most  powerful  bird  painting  in  the  world.  This, 
like  the  Motonobu  Kwannon,  I  had  known  through  a  famous  old  copy 
by  Tanyu,  before  I  found,  and  was  able  to  purchase,  the  original. 
This  was  among  the  treasures  dispersed  to  outgoing  retainers  in  1872. 
It  most  fully  exemplifies  the  Zen  ideal  of  a  bird  whose  majesty  makes 
us  think  instinctively  of  great  human  qualities.  It  would  hardly  be  too 
much  to  say  that  this  seems  to  be  a  "  Buddha  among  birds."  It,  and 
the  Motonobu  Kwannon,  were  the  two  greatest  treasures  of  the  first 
historical  exhibition  of  works  by  all  the  masters  of  the  Kano  school, 
which  I  held  at  Tokio  in  1885.     In  pure  landscape  we  find  Utanosuke's 


102     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND   JAPANESE    ART 

best  work  upon    the  walls    of   several    temples,    notably  of  Shinjoan,  in 
Daitokuji.     Its  composition  is  less  powerful  than  Motonobu's. 

When  Nobunaga,  the  conquering  freebooter,  came  and  held  Kioto 
from  time  to  time  during  the  1550's,  he  found  Kano  Motonobu  and 
Kano  Utanosuke  quietly  at  work  in  their  studios,  surrounded  by  a  large 
retinue  of  sons  and  students.  They  were  just  completing  that  great 
range  of  works  that  had  bridged  half  a  century.  Nobunaga  entered 
rudely  into  the  place  made  sacred  by  art,  but  Motonobu,  though  aware 
of  his  presence,  went  on  working  without  noticing  the  intruder.  The 
rough  soldier  rather  delighted  in  the  man's  independence  ;  and  when 
he  began  the  building  of  a  great  feudal  castle  in  Kioto,  the 
Nijo,  he  summoned  the  Kanos  to  plan  and  execute  the  mural 
decoration.  This  act  of  Nobunaga's  in  surrounding  his  headquarters 
with  granite  walls  is  in  striking  contrast  with  the  policy  of  the 
Ashikaga,  who  had  lived  in  the  midst  of  their  capital  city  in 
unfortified   palaces. 

Nobunaga  made  Kioto  his  chief  centre  of  operations  from  1568 
to  his  death  in  1582.  Motonobu  had  died  in  1559  at  an  advanced  age  ; 
and  his  second  son,  Kano  Shoyei,  became  the  official  head  of  the  great 
Kano  academy  that  the  genius  of  his  father  had  built  up.  Nobunaga 
promptly  took  him  into  his  employ,  and  we  can  roughly  estimate 
the  Nobunaga  period — from  1559  to  1582 — as  the  period  of  the 
third    generation,    Kano    Shoyei    and    his    associates. 

Though  this  school  was  large  in  numbers,  there  was  no  central 
genius  in  it  to  take  the  places  of  the  two  great  brothers,  Motonobu 
and  Utanosuke.  The  eldest  son  of  the  former,  Soshi,  had  died 
before  his  father.  Other  brothers,  Yusetsu  and  Suyemasa,  were  weak 
in  style.  A  son-in-law,  Yosetsu,  and  a  nephew,  Giokuraku,  came  the 
nearest  to  the  great  master  himself.  Genya,  Doan,  Sadanobu,  and 
Kimura  Nagamitsu  were  conspicuous  among  a  great  crowd  of  pupils. 
The  style  of  the  last  was  original  and  powerful  ;  and  he  is  also 
celebrated  as  being  the  father  of  the  great  Sanraku.  Good  specimens 
of  the  work  of  all  these  men  are  in  the  Fenollosa  collection.  But 
the  central  position  fell  to  Shoyei  by  inheritance  if  not  by  genius. 
He  was  a  faithful,  steady  worker,  but  without  fire.  The  forceful 
lines  of  his  father  were  chopped  up  into  small  and  somewhat 
monotonous  crumbly  touches.  His  work  in  coloured  flowers  and  birds 
was    his    prettiest.     But    it    was  clear  that  his  work,    and    that    of  most 


Painting  of  an  Eagle.     By  Kano  Utanosuke. 
Fenollosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston. 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN   JAPAN  103 

of  his  followers,  was  after  all  manufactured.  There  was  no  heart 
in  it.  It  did  not  pretend  to  go  back  for  inspiration  to  Chinese 
originals,  nor  even  to  Sesshu.  The  long  triumph  of  Motonobu  had 
overweighted  it  with  a  narrow,  unbreakable  tradition.  His  pungent 
style  had  become  a  wall  which  shut  out  their  view.  Their  sole  aim 
was  to  be  like  him,  and  chiefly — as  always  happens  in  such  cases — 
like  his  latest  and  weakest  phases.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  end, 
not  only  ot  the  Kano  school  but  of  the  whole  Ashikaga  movement, 
had  come.  The  infusion  of  Tosa  tradition  and  blood,  the  possibility 
of  reviving  something  of  Japanese  style,  were  chances  thrown  away. 
Now  that  the  substance  of  Motonobu  was  gone,  the  world  demanded 
his  shadow.  Shoyei's  thin  talent,  with  such  a  father  and  mother,  is  a 
strange  fact  of  "  heredity,"  He  did  a  few  little  pieces  in  Tosa  style. 
Some  of  the  Nijo  castle  decorations  are  probably  by  him.  There  is  a 
good  "  Kwacho "  kakemono  and  a  screen  by  him  in  Boston.  Such 
was  the  weak  ending  of  a  powerful  movement  begun  two  centuries  before 
with  Noami   and   Soga  Shubun. 

But  the  Kano  school  did  not  at  all  come  to  an  end,  though  the 
Ashikaga  did.  Strange  circumstances  arose  between  1582  and  1600, 
and  the  Kano  family,  under  the  leadership  of  its  genius  in  the  fourth 
generation,  just  turned  about  and  adapted  itself  to  the  new  conditions. 
There  was  no  longer  much  pretence  of  an  interest  in  Zen  idealism, 
in  China,  or  in  landscape.  An  upstart,  Hideyoshi,  was  in  the  saddle. 
He  had  subdued  the  whole  land  to  his  will,  by  conquest  or  policy. 
His  strongest  rival,  Tokugawa  lyeyasu,  of  the  East,  acknowledged  his 
supremacy.  The  brilliant  military  achievements  of  the  age,  such  as  the 
conquest  of  Corea,  fairly  turned  attention  back  to  Japanese  feeling  and 
Japanese  prowess.  When  Hideyoshi,  about  to  invade  China  as  well  as 
Corea,  was  advised  to  take  Chinese  interpreters  for  his  expedition,  he 
replied  patriotically,  "We  shall  teach  the  Chinese  to  use  our  literature." 
This  shows  Ashikaga  upside  down.  And  yet  in  Hideyoshi's  day  as  a 
fact  there  was  little  manifestation  of  a  real  return  to  Japanese  subject 
in  art.  Why  was  this  ?  And  what  could  the  Kano  school  possibly 
turn  to — if  not  to  Zen  dreaming  on  the  one  hand  or  to  Tosa  violence 
on  the  other  :  The  answer  to  these  questions  is,  Hideyoshi  s  vanity  and 
Kano    Yeitoku  s  genius. 

Hideyoshi  indulged  in  no  idealisms.  In  others  he  half  despised 
and  half  feared  them.     He  was  foe  to    the    supernatural  pretensions  of 


10+     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

both  Buddhists  and  Christians.  Of  the  two  he  intended  to  favour 
such  part  of  Buddhism  as  he  could  patronize.  His  policy,  in  this 
respect  as  in  every  other,  is  like  Napoleon  I.  in  his  dealings  with 
the  Roman  Church.  Hideyoshi  knew  that  most  of  his  generals — men 
of  ancient  lineage — really  despised  him  for  his  plebeian  birth  ;  and  his 
efforts  were  largely  directed  to  manufacturing  for  himself  patents  of 
nobility  which  should  outshine  them  all.  Thus  he  induced  the 
Emperor  to  appoint  him  Kwambaku  or  Regent,  an  imperial  office  that 
no  daimio  or  Shogun  had  ever  held,  one  that  was  always  reserved  for 
a  Fujiwara  descendant.  He  built  the  magnificent  castle  of  Osaka, 
which  in  scale  far  surpassed  all  precedents.  But  more  than  all,  he 
strove  to  surround  his  Court  with  the  externals  of  an  almost  imperial 
splendour.  He  built  the  great  palace  of  Fushimi,  unexampled  in  Japan 
for  its  size  and  for  its  gorgeous  finish  in  colours  and  gold.  The 
costume  of  his  lords  and  ladies  was  of  unparalleled  richness,  splendid 
robes  of  bright  tint,  with  great  patterns  of  still  richer  hue,  sweeping 
from  neck  to  heel.  The  richest  carvings,  not  now  in  relief  only,  but 
perforated,  were  inserted  into  the  screens  of  the  interior  finish,  and 
covered  with  colours  and  with  gold  leaf.  The  reception  rooms  of  all 
the  temples  that  he  favoured  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Kioto  were 
finished  in  the  same  gorgeous  style. 

Now,  how  could  he  do  all  this,  where  get  the  motive,  the  power,  the 
Ideal,  the  model,  for  such  a  comprehensive  use  of  art  In  mural  and  other 
decorative  work  ?  The  answer  Is,  from  Kano  Yeltoku,  and  a  plan  for 
new  subjects,  which  probably  he  and  his  master  privately  agreed  upon. 
This  plan  was  to  go — neither  to  Sung  idealism  nor  to  Japanese  feudality — 
but  back  to  the  Imperial  splendours  of  the  Courts  of  the  early  Tang  in  China, 
of  Taiso  the  conqueror  of  Tartary,  and  of  Genso,  the  world-lord  !  The 
art  that  should  decorate  their  enormous  and  brilliant  walls  should  consist  of 
great  Tang  Court  pageants  crowded  with  figures  of  Chinese  lords  and  ladies, 
Emperors  and  their  suites,  in  the  most  gorgeous  costume,  and  backed  by 
endless  reaches  of  pavilions  in  enamelled  architecture,  and  of  gardens  stocked 
with  rare  plants  and  animals.  In  this  way,  the  Taiko — again  like  Napoleon 
— should  impress  his  subjects  with  the  insignia  and  outward  magnificence 
of  the  greatest  Imperialism  his  continent  had  known.  Napoleon  the  revived 
Caesar,  and  Hideyoshi  the  reborn  Li — a  perfect  parallel. 

The  man  who  saw  just  how  to  execute  this  bold  and  magnificent 
scheme  was  Kano  Yeltoku,  the  second  son  of  Shoyei.     Though  young. 


Painting.     By  Kano  Motonobu. 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN  JAPAN  105 

he  had  succeeded  to  the  headship  of  the  family  before  1582,  He 
could  command  for  the  task  the  help  of  two  accomplished  brothers, 
Soshu  and  Kinhaku,  and  a  vast  army  of  pupils,  whom  he  undertook 
to  instruct  in  the  new  manner — and  of  whom  the  chief  were  Sanraku 
and  Yusho — and,  later,  his  young  sons,  Mitsunobu,  Takanobu,  and 
Genshichuro. 

Kano  Yeitoku,  as  a  boy,  had  known  the  personal  influence  of  his 
grandfather,  Motonobu  ;  and  during  the  regime  of  his  father,  had 
occasionally  produced  works  in  the  old  style  whose  vigour  threatened 
the  repose  of  the  school.  Of  these,  the  most  splendid  are  the 
vigorous  mural  work  of  pine  trees  and  blossoming  plums  in  ink,  done 
on  the  sliding  doors  of  Daitokuji.  They  have  the  lightning  splintering 
of  stroke  that  recalls  the  old  Kano  patriarch  at  his  best,  but  with 
a  new  proportioning  and  radiation.  A  small  painting  in  colour  of  a 
wood  pigeon  on  a  camellia  bough  (which  is  in  Boston)  rivals 
Utanosuke's  Kwacho.*  Also  in  the  FenoUosa  collection  is  an  early 
impressionistic  ink  landscape  in  black  which  breaks  up  the  crust  of 
Motonobu  tradition  in  original  explosions.  The  bent  of  the  young 
genius  was  already  toward  coarse  strength.  And  when  Hideyoshi,  after 
his  triumph  of  1582,  began  to  carve  out  a  Court  career,  Yeitoku 
was  on  hand  to  conceive  great  panels  of,  say,  forty  feet  in  length  by 
fifteen  in  height,  where  coarsely  drawn  but  dignified  figures  of  Chinese 
worthies  should  crowd  a  ground  already  largely  prepared  with  gold. 
It  was  a  revolution  in  Kano  style,  in  Japanese  art — in  short,  a  brief 
but    brilliant    epoch    in    painting. 

The  sources  of  this  art,  in  so  far  as  they  were  external,  can  be 
partly  conjectured.  In  subject  he  but  borrowed  certain  Court  groupings, 
generally  minute,  that  had  been  painted  in  colours  by  Tang  and  Sung 
artists  ever  since  the  days  of  Godoshi  and  Roshibu.  The  Chinese 
hunting  scenes — resting  alternately  upon  remote  Assyrian  and  Han  pro- 
totypes— could  be  derived  from  Rianchu  and  other  Sung  students  of 
Kin  and  Mongol.  The  great  point  was  how  to  enlarge  these  groups 
to  mural  scale  and  make  their  heightened  colouring  correspond. 
Motonobu  had  already  given  some  hint  of  a  solution  in  his  large,  but 
more  quietly  coloured,  mural  decorations.  Here  he  had  generally  not 
used  gold  leaf,  though  this  had  been  done  to  some  small  extent  by  late 
Tosa's,  as  Mitsunobu.  It  was  Yeitoku  who  for  the  first  time  conceived 
of  expanding  the  gold  leaf  clouding  until  it  should  occupy  perhaps  half 
*  "  Kwacho,"  in  Chinese  "  hua-mao,"  signifies  a  painting  of  flowers  and  birds. 


io6     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

of  the  background,  and  should  again  require  touches  of  gold  paint 
throughout  the  costumes  and  accessories  in  order  to  force  them  forward 
into  colour  scale.  The  colours  themselves  of  the  figures  were  done  in 
yellows,  oranges,  reds,  browns,  greens,  and  purples,  most  primary,  and 
flat  in  hue,  like  great  pieces  of  mosaic.  The  wooden  details  of  the 
architecture,  in  dark  chocolates  and  gold,  should  be  brightened  by 
gorgeous  brocades,  and  by  heavy-tiled  roofs  in  purple,  blue,  green, 
and  gold  enamel — a  barbaric  scale,  of  which  there  is  only  a  hint  in 
ancient  Chinese  sketches.  More  direct  impressions  were  probably 
derived  from  Chinese  palace  scenes  of  late  Ming,  which  were  worked 
out  on  great  screens  of  raised  lacquer,  in  colours  of  some  brilliancy. 
The  disposition  of  the  Court  figures  in  Yeitoku's  and  Sanraku's 
panoramas  is  often  quite  like  the  best  Chinese  decoration  of  this 
sort.  And  there  was  a  Corean  form  of  this  decoration,  more  splendid 
still,  where  considerable  gold  leaf  had  been  used  with  the  lacquer. 
The  insipidity  of  the  late  Ming  figures  was,  however,  bettered  by 
Yeitoku's  training  in  the  splendid  wedge-shaped  penmanship  of  his 
grandfather,  and  his  large  feeling  for  proportion. 

But  the  most  original  feature  that  Yeitoku  introduced  into  these 
huge  colour  mosaics  was  the  introduction  in  patches  of  very  dark 
colour,  got  by  glazing  transparent  pigments  over  coloured  ground,  as  in 
the  tempera  and  oil  work  of  Europe,  or  by  scumbling  dark  opaque 
pigment  over  lighter.  In  this  way  he  could  carry  his  coloured  masses 
to  a  contrast  and  depth  of  notan  comparable  to  that  achieved  in  mono- 
chrome by  the  pure  glossy  blacks  of  ink.  Thus  he  could  darken  his 
greens  into  a  splendid  olive,  his  blues  into  lapis  lazuli  soaked  with 
indigo,  his  scale  of  oranges  and  reds  into  the  glowing  carmines  of 
cochineals,  and  his  purples  into  the  lowest  depths  of  plums.  At  times 
his  orpiments  would  strengthen  into  the  richest  warm  dark  browns. 
He  would  apply  this  method,  too,  to  the  foliage  of  trees  ;  and  indeed 
it  had  been  already  foreshadowed  in  the  dark  leafage  of  Utanosuke  ; 
and  he  would  get  more  glow  into  his  blossoms  by  their  glazing  of 
transparent  pinks  and  gamboge.  In  how  far  Yeitoku  was  influenced  toward 
this  by  the  many  examples  of  European  oil  painting  imported  for  the  Christian 
daimios  we  can  only  conjecture.  There  is  no  attempt  at  shadow  in  his  work, 
and  Hideyoshi  was  hostile  to  the  European  propaganda  ;  but  it  may  well 
be  that  Yeitoku  got  a  hint  of  stronger  mural  power  in  colour  from  the 
glazed  garments  of  pseudo-Venetian  "  Holy  Families,"  or  portraits  ot  popes. 


IDEALISTIC    ART   IN   JAPAN  107 

It  will  be  seen  from  all  this  that  the  school  of  Yeitoku  is  probably 
the  most  brilliant  school  of  secular  art  that  Asia  ever  produced, 
perhaps  the  most  brilliant  in  the  world  with  the  one  exception  of 
Venice  at  its  best.  In  actual  appearance,  with  its  presence  of  flat 
gold  and  absence  of  shadows,  it  is  not  unlike  the  altar-pieces  of 
the  great  Italians  Giotto,  Orcagna,  Lorenzo  Monaco  and  Fra  Angelico. 
It  is  like  what  these  would  become  if  expanded  to  a  scale  of  yards 
or  rods. 

But  our  most  important  historical  problem  is  to  see  just  how  this 
great  school  stands  toward  the  movement  of  which  it  is  in  name  the 
culmination.  In  subject  it  is  Chinese,  and  therefore  not  out  of 
harmony  with  one  side  of  Sung  and  Ashikaga  art.  In  technique  of 
drawing,  too,  it  is  really  a  legitimate  development  of  Shubun,  Sotan 
and  Motonobu.  In  the  fact  of  mural  decoration  on  a  large  scale 
it  merely  follows  the  precedents  of  Sesshu.  It  therefore  clearly  has 
strong  roots  in  the  past  of  Chinese  feeling.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  almost  entirely  cut  off  from  that  splendid  Zen  spirit  which  had 
rendered  the  art  of  Hangchow  and  Ashikaga  possible.  Not  a  trace 
of  any  but  a  decorative  love  of  nature  remains  ;  the  noble  sobriety 
of  monochrome  in  mural  work  has  given  way  to  the  most  "  vulgar " 
extravagances  of  colour.  In  these  respects,  while  we  must  declare  it 
a  late  offshoot  from  the  Ashikaga  stem,  it  presents  such  enormous 
variation  that  it  fairly  becomes  a  type  by  itself,  a  type  of  transition 
in  art — as  its  master  was  in  policy — between  the  Shogunate  of  the 
Ashikaga   and   the    Shogunate    of  the    Tokugawa. 

Conceived  in  relation  to  other  contemporary  tendencies,  it  holds  a 
marvellous  conservatism  and  balance.  It  is  true  that  the  seeds  of  a 
Japanese  return  to  Japanese  feeling  are  already  in  it  ;  we  shall  see 
in  the  next  chapter  how  the  Korin  school  partly  grows  out  of  it,  and 
in  Chapter  XVII.  how  the  Ukiyoye  school  of  the  populace  does  the 
same  thing.  But  in  itself,  its  great  day— that  is,  in  Hideyoshi's  and 
Yeitoku's  day — it  showed  no  more  of  this  tendency  than  is  involved 
in  its  Tosa  descent  through  Mitsuhisa,  and  the  semi-Tosa  suggestion 
in  its  colouring.  Again,  though  face  to  face  with  Europe,  and  already 
threatened  with  pungent  world  changes  that  have  become  realities  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  it  still  holds  itself  aloof,  and  remains  closely 
Asiatic.  One  more  negative  relation  is  here  well  worth  stating.  It 
is  contemporary  with  the  closing  days  of  Ming,  a  harassed  and  confused 

VOL.  II.  ^ 


io8     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

Ming,  a  Ming  that  has  utterly  thrown  away  its  last  trace  of  eclectic 
desire  to  reproduce  Hangchow,  and  has  gone  over  bodily  to  the 
Confucian  scholars,  who  in  their  ignorance  and  perverted  taste  are 
transforming  and  travestying  their  natural  art  into  the  trivialities  of 
"  bunjinga."  But  of  this  movement,  which  we  shall  dwell  upon  at 
some  length  in  Chapter  XVI.,  not  a  hint  crept  into  Hideyoshi's  Court. 
As  little  cared  he  and  his  war-loving  daimios  for  Confucius  as  for 
Buddha  or  Christ.  Any  new  form  of  preciosity  or  ultra-impressionism 
would  have  been  most  distasteful  to  them.  Japan  was  happily  spared 
the    scourge    of  Chinese    formalism    until    the    eighteenth    century. 

The  greatest  examples  of  the  pure  Yeitoku  manner  are  seen  to- 
day in  the  decorations  of  the  great  hall  of  the  Nishi -Honganji  temple 
at  Kioto.  This  was  a  favourite  of  Hideyoshi's,  and  he  transferred  to 
it  some  of  his  pavilions,  and  also  some  of  the  carved  gates,  and  the 
gilded  halls,  it  is  said,  from  the  Monoyama  palace  at  Fushimi. 
Hideyoshi's  great  wood-carver  was  Hidari  Jingoro,  and  certainly  the 
splendid  front  gate  of  Nishi  Honganji,  with  the  fine  figures  on  horse- 
back, shows  that  Jingoro  took  his  designs  from  Yeitoku.  It  is  also 
clear  that  the  rich  costumes  and  gorgeous  lacquer  utensils  of  the 
day,  big  and  gaudy  decoration  with  large  pattern,  are  from  Yeitoku's 
pen.  The  great  hall  of  Honganji  has  a  pillar-supported  ceiling,  cut  into 
hundreds  of  square  panels  bordered  in  black  and  gold,  and  painted  with 
coloured  flower  pieces  by  Yeitoku  in  the  circular  centre.  Three  sides 
of  its  walls  are  decorated  with  the  gold  and  colour  panoramas  of  the 
great  artist,  painted  on  sliding  doors  to  right  and  left,  but  against  the 
solid  wall  of  the  great  Tokonama  at  the  back.  Beautiful  gilded  carvings 
in  the  ramma  surmount  these  paintings,  where  forms  of  interlaced  birds 
and  flowers  are  as  nobly  decorative,  yet  naively  real,  as  in  the  borders 
of  Ghiberti's  bronze  doors. 

But  for  the  most  part  we  have  to  rely  upon  screens  to  study  this 
Yeitoku  work.  The  finest,  which  came  to  my  hands  directly  from 
Kanazawa,  the  capital  of  the  rich  daimio  of  Kaga,  is  a  pair  of  six-fold 
screens  originally  presented  to  the  Mayeda  family  by  Hideyoshi  himself. 
It  represents  the  reception  of  the  foreign  envoys  who  are  bringing 
world-rarities  as  tribute  to  the  Court  of  the  Emperor  Taiso  of  To.  It 
is  in  Yeitoku's  richest,  yet  most  finished  and  careful  style  of  gold  and 
colour  work.  The  Emperor  sits  upon  a  throne,  surrounded  with  his 
Court,  his  ministers,  ladies  and  musicians  ;    upon  the    companion  screen 


^  V 


r 


Treks.     By  Kano  Sosli 


I 


IDEALISTIC   ART   IN  JAPAN  109 

the  envoys  are  seen  approaching  through  a  rich  garden.  This  pair  is 
one  of  the  treasures  of  the  Fenollosa  collection.  Another  two-panel 
screen  in  the  same  collection  shows  figures  crossing  a  dark  blue  lake  in 
a  golden  boat.  The  drawing  of  these,  faces  and  costumes,  is  so 
careful  and  vigorous  as  to  look  almost  like  a  Motonobu.  The  large  two- 
panel  screen  of  Mr.  Freer's,  showing  an  Emperor  and  his  ladies,  is  in  the 
later,  more  rounded,  style.  Some  of  Yeitoku's  most  effective  work, 
however,  discarded  Chinese  figures,  and  confined  itself  to  the  most 
gorgeous  flower  and  leaf  decoration  in  solid  encrusted  (sometimes  literally 
relieved)  gold  and  silver  colours.  A  fine  example  is  the  two-fold 
maple  fragment  at  Boston.  Still  finer  is  the  great  six-fold  screen  of 
grape  leaves  falling  from  a  trellis,  owned  by  Mr.  Freer,  in  which  the 
most  subtle  tones  of  green  and  olive  and  of  the  dullest  purple  of  the 
fruit  clusters  play  on  tarnished  silvers.  Less  impressionistic  and  more 
crisply  perfect  in  drawing  is  the  same  gentleman's  two-fold  screen  by 
Yeitoku,  painted  in  hanging  clusters  of  wistaria.  Here  nothing  is  left  to 
chance,  for  every  line  of  every  petal  is  painted  in  most  beautiful  detail, 
yet  without  distraction    of  the  broad  effect. 

The  greatest  follower  of  Yeitoku,  in  these  achievements,  was 
Sanraku,  the  son  of  Kimura  Nagamitsu,  whom  Yeitoku  adopted  under 
the  Kano  name.  His  ink  style  is  scratchy  and  florid,  though  less 
violent  than  his  father's.  But  in  gold  and  colour  mural  work  he  comes 
close  to  his  new  father.  His  lines  are  a  little  more  nervous  and 
crumbly  than  Yeitoku's,  his  figures  more  suave  and  graceful,  his 
colouring  lovely,  yet  less  rich  in  scale  of  pigments.  There  is  a  fine 
screen  of  Court  musicians  in  Boston,  and  Mr.  Freer's  collection  holds 
several  noble  examples.  Of  Sanraku's  relation  to  the  beginnings  of 
Ukiyoye  we  shall  speak  fully  in  Chapter  XVII, 

Next  to  Sanraku,  in  pure  Yeitoku  execution,  comes  Yeitoku's 
two  brothers,  Soha  and  Kiuhaku.  Of  the  former  Mr.  Freer  has  two 
fine  screens,  cut  up  by  raised  gold  clouds  into  some  twenty  or  more 
scenes  of  Chinese  Court  life  with  small  brilliant  figures.  The  perfect 
preservation  of  the  colour  shows  what  Yeitoku's  must  have  been  like 
when  fresh.  A  fine  pair  of  Kiuhaku  Court  screens  is  in  Boston,  where 
a  great  concourse  of  ladies  upon  a  terrace  forms  a  central  group. 
Both  of  them  are  fully  identified  by  comparison  with  signed  works. 
When  I  first  went  to  Japan  no  artist  of  the  school  was  clearly 
differentiated  from  the  founder.     It   was  my  interesting    labour  through 

H  2. 


no     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

twenty  years  to  identify  the  varying  styles  of  some  fifteen  or  twenty 
of  his  followers. 

Kaihoku  Yusho  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  Yeitoku's  pupils,  and 
shows  more  individuality  than  the  others.  Much  of  his  best  work, 
especially  in  ink,  belongs  to  the  next  age,  of  lyeyasu.  But  fine  colour 
pieces  are  kept  at  Daitokuji  and  Mioshinji.  His  screen  covered  with 
pink  peonies  on  gold,  at  the  latter  place,  marks,  like  Yeitoku's  grapes 
and  wistaria,  one  of  the  starting  points  of  Koyetsu.  The  work  of 
Yeitoku's  sons,  Mitsunobu,  Takanobu  and  Genshichiro,  chiefly  appears 
in  the  Tokugawa  age  ;  though  fine  examples  of  Mitsunobu's  gold  and 
colour  work  exist,  as  in  the  polo-playing  screen  at  Boston. 

Yeitoku  himself  died  at  a  comparatively  early  age,  before  his 
master  Hideyoshi,  and  Mitsunobu  became  successor  as  head  of  the 
family.  Had  Yeitoku  lived,  he  would  probably  have  influenced  the 
art  of  lyeyasu  into  different  channels  from  those  it  finally  took.  With 
him  and  his  fellow-workers  we  close  this  transitional  phase  of  Ashikaga 
art,  though  indeed  the  persistence  of  the  school  manner  in  the  seventh 
generation  is,  though  belonging  to  Tokugawa,  only  a  late  phase  of  the 
same  transition.  That  is,  we  can  see  the  feeling  and  accomplishment 
of  these  great  days  changing  slowly  from  decade  to  decade,  without 
any  violent  reactions.  We  assume  the  accession  of  Tokugawa  to  be 
the  proper  boundary  between  this  chapter  and  the  next,  because  all 
the  arts  of  the  Tokugawa  epochs  clearly  begin  to  come  into  shape 
thereafter. 


t/2  rt  S 

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w'-^^ 


Chapter   XIV. 
MODERN    ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN    JAPAN. 

T^he    Later  Kano  and  the  Korin  School. 

WE  now  come  to  that  last  great  period  of  Japanese  civilization 
and  art,  the  Tokugawa  dynasty  of  Shoguns,  lasting  practically, 
though  lyeyasu  waited  two  years  for  formal  investment,  from 
1600  to  1868.  It  is  the  connecting  link  between  a  rich  past,  whether 
Chinese  or  native,  and  the  forceful,  innovating  Japan  of  to-day.  Most 
writers  have  affected  to  see  in  it  the  culmination  of  Nippon's  genius 
and  art  ;  but  this  springs  chiefly  from  their  relative  familiarity  with 
it.  It  is  the  same  mere  physical  perspective  which  leads  European 
Sinologues  to  place  present  Chinese  thought  in  the  foreground  of  her 
total  picturing.  The  truth  is  that  Tokugawa  art  in  the  main  descends 
rather  far  into  triviality  and  over  decoration.  It  was  this  reason  that 
induced  Mr.  Cram  quite  to  omit  Tokugawa  architecture  from  his 
monograph.  Though  this  long  lake  of  peace  is  of  deep  moment  for 
the  sociologist,  its  strange  artificial  structures,  built  up  as  it  were  on 
piles  from  the  muddy  bottom  of  the  past,  savour  less  of  culmination 
than  of  a  strained  balance  between  survival  and  re-adaptation.  Their 
rapid  collapse  soon  after  the  impact  of  Perry's  foreign  wave  but 
confirms  their  innate  weakness.  So  in  Tokugawa  art  there  is  .hardly 
more  than  one  great  name,  Koyetsu,  worthy  of  inscription  with  the 
great    geniuses    of  the    four    preceding    epochs. 

Such  art  as  exists,  too,  has  less  of  a  single  national  character, 
less  of  any  solid  style  that  betrays  a  widespread  movement  ;  and 
is  cut  up  into  a  large  variety  of  minor  schools  and  experiments,  often 
quite  local  in  setting,  and  limited  by  feverish  antagonisms.  Some  of 
them  are  indeed  experiments  ;  but  some  are  hardly  more  than  weak 
revivals  of  exhausted  tradition.  It  is  a  period  of  dispersion  and 
confusion,     more    than    of   concentration    in    art.       We    can    follow    the 


112     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

fortunes  of  at  least  eight  separate  schools,  parallel  or  overlapping  in 
time,  here  ignorant  of  each  other,  there  weakly  compromising.  But 
of  these  only  four  reach  a  breadth  and  height  that  warrant  our  special 
study    in    this    and    the    following    chapters. 

In  order  to  simplify  this  mass  of  material,  we  might  first  ask  what 
is  it,  then,  in  the  Tokugawa  period,  that  makes  it  epochal .?  It  is  not 
the  feudal  system,  for  that  has  already  characterized  two  epochs.  It  is 
not,  as  it  should  logically  have  been,  contact  with  Europe  ;  because  this 
was  deliberately  and  violently  removed  from  the  field  by  the  early 
Tokugawa  policy  of  exclusion.  It  could  not  be  any  great  spiritual 
awakening,  or  introduction  of  organizing  principle,  for  Buddhism  was 
exhausted  and  Christianity  tabooed.  It  could  not  come  from  China, 
since  the  Manchus,  who  were  about  to  overturn  Ming,  were  regarded 
with  suspicion  inherited  from  Mongol  days,  and  Chinese  intercourse 
was  included  in  the  embargo.  The  Manchus,  too,  had  nothing  new  to 
bring,  even  to  China.  No,  we  could  hardly  speak  of  the  age  as  epochal, 
were  it  not  for  the  rise  of  the  common  people,  independently — the 
artisans,  the  merchants,  and  the  farmers — to  a  high  stage  of  civilization, 
and  to  the  point  of  producing  a  peculiar  art  of  their  own. 

It  was  like  the  rise  of  the  industrial  classes  in  the  free  cities  of 
Europe,  in  those  middle  centuries  when  the  old  feudal  system  was 
breaking  up.  There,  too,  could  be  seen  armoured  lords  of  castles 
flourishing  side  by  side  with  burghers  and  guilders.  It  is  the  same 
duality  which  forms  the  keynote  of  Tokugawa  culture  taken  as  a  whole. 
And,  just  as  the  guilds  of  Germany  and  Italy  underlay  the  possibility  of 
modern  national  citizenship,  so  it  was  the  growing  self-consciousness  of 
Japan's  great  city  wards  that  paved  the  way  for  her  constitutional  life. 
Too  often  we  have  read  that  the  whole  brilliancy  and  value  of  Japan 
lay  in  her  Samurai.  Even  to-day  Japanese  officials,  who  are  the 
descendants  of  those  samurai,  only  grudgingly  recognize  the  great 
fermenting  and  self-educated  growth  of  the  masses  before  the  restoration. 
The  solid  reefs  which  support  present  structures  may  be  submerged, 
but    the  coral  insects  have  done  their  mighty  work. 

The  keynote  of  Tokugawa  life  and  art  is,  then,  their  broad  division 
into  two  main  streams — the  aristocratic  and  the  plebeian.  These  two 
flowed  on  side  by  side  with  comparatively  little  intermingling.  On  the 
one  side  select  communities  of  gentlemen  and  ladies  congregated  in 
gorgeous    castles    and  yashiki,  daimios    and    samurai,  exercising,  studying 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC    ART   IN  JAPAN     113 

their  own  and  China's  past,  weaving  martial  codes  of  honour,  surrounding 
themselves  with  wonderful  utensils  of  lacquer,  porcelain,  embroidery 
and  cunningly-worked  bronze  ;  on  the  other  side  great  cities  like 
Osaka,  Nagoya,  Kioto  and  Yedo,  swarming  with  manufacturers,  artisans 
and  merchants,  sharing  little  of  the  castle  privileges,  but  devising  for 
themselves  methods  of  self-expression  in  local  government,  schools, 
science,  literature  and  art.  The  leading  forms  of  plebeian  art  we  shall 
treat  in  the  two  following  chapters.  This  chapter  we  shall  specially 
devote  to  the  peculiar  arts  of  the  military  classes. 

The  triumph  of  lyeyasu  had  been  only  the  capping  of  a  long 
generation  of  successive  wars,  from  Nobunaga's  beginnings  about  1550 
to  the  coalition  of  Hideyoshi's  Corean  veterans  in  1600.  In  defeating 
this  coalition  lyeyasu  not  only  supplanted  the  Taiko's  son,  Hideyori, 
but  killed  or  removed  most  of  his  powerful  rivals.  He  consolidated 
his  dynasty,  not  only  by  dividing  most  of  the  land  among  his  loyal 
relatives  and  retainers,  but  by  devising  a  policy  of  requiring  their 
residence  in  his  new  capital  of  Yedo  for  at  least  half  of  each  year. 
The  most  conspicuous  features  of  Tokugawa  aristocratic  society  spring 
from  these  regulations.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  profound  peace, 
with  a  great  order  of  warriors  favoured  and  consolidated,  yet  curbed 
through  hostages — such  is  the  balance  of  forces.  A  wonderful  circulation 
between  the  country  life  of  the  castles  and  the  metropolitan  life  of 
the  yashiki  carries  a  common  civilization,  as  it  were,  from  heart  to 
periphery.  A  natural  tendency  to  luxury  is  curbed  by  severe  dis- 
cipline and  sumptuary  laws.  lyeyasu,  when  he  died  in  1616,  left  a 
plan  of  policy  which  his  successors  mostly  followed.  lyeyasu  had  built 
for  himself  at  Yedo  the  great  central  castle  on  a  series  of  hills,  the 
site  of  which  is  covered  to-day  by  the  Mikado's  palace.  From  it, 
like  a  camp  surrounded  by  camps,  the  Tokugawa  Shoguns  could  control 
the  whole  system. 

The  history  of  Japan  would  have  been  far  different  had  lyeyasu, 
like  the  Ashikaga,  decided  to  place  their  capital  at  Kioto.  The  Eastern 
plain  (Kwanto),  the  richest  hive  of  life  in  the  Empire,  would  have 
been  stunted  of  its  peculiar  expression.  The  Imperial  Court  would 
have  had  to  be  too  much  deferred  to.  lyeyasu  could  profit,  too,  by 
the  mistakes  of  the  Hojo  at  Kamakura.  Yedo  should  become  the 
real  capital  of  the  land,  leaving  Kioto  shorn  and  powerless.  And  indeed 
Yedo  became  the  Paris  of  the  East  before  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 


114     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

century,  with  the  populous  wards  of  Honjo  and    Futagawa    far    beyond 
the  Sumida  river. 

The  great  work  of  realizing  the  schemes  of  lyeyasu  fell  to  the 
third  Shogun,  lyemitsu,  in  1620;  quite  as  the  detailed  policy  of 
Ashikaga  had  devolved  upon  Yoshimitsu.  It  was  not  till  then  that 
the  prohibition  of  foreign  intercourse  was  settled.  Commerce  with 
the  Protestant  English  and  Dutch  had  grown  up  in  the  reign  of 
lyeyasu,  for  it  was  the  disintegrating  power  of  Rome  that  the  Japanese 
chiefly  feared.  Since  161 8  the  Tartar  hordes  of  the  Manchus  were 
steadily  pouring  down  upon  the  Mings  at  Peking.  In  1637  came  the 
great  Christian  revolt  at  Shimabara,  which  convinced  the  authorities 
that  Europe,  through  religious  intrigue,  might  yet  subvert  native 
loyalty.  Thus  in  1639  came  the  policy  of  exclusion,  by  which  no 
native  could  expatriate  himself,  and  no  Japanese,  then  beyond  the 
borders,  might  return  to  his  native  land.  The  Dutch  were  shut  up 
in  the  island  of  Deshima,  and  allowed  only  one  trading  ship  a  year. 
The  Chinese,  too,  could  eflFect  commerce  only  at  the  one  port  of 
Nagasaki.  Thus  Japan  became  an  industrial  and  a  spiritual  island  in 
the  face  of  an  advancing  world.  During  the  next  hundred  years, 
when  the  Jesuits  were  so  triumphant  in  their  policy  with  the  Manchus, 
and  Louis  XIV.  of  France  could  exchange  letters  of  amity  with  the 
great  Kanghi,  while  Englishmen  were  colonizing  the  great  continent 
of  North  America,  and  science  was  pressing  forward  unique  enlighten- 
ment, Japan  stood  like  a  solid  fortress  frowning  out  of  the  past,  defying 
the  world,  defying  civilization,  defying  human  brotherhood,  preserving 
utterly  artificial  old-world  forms  and  ideas.  Was  it  a  blessing  or  a 
misfortune  ?  I  have  already  expressed  my  belief  that  it  was  the 
former,  and  providential.  For  how  could  the  common  people  of  Japan 
have  come  to  study  and  understand  the  peculiar  powers  of  their  own 
minds  and  characters,  how  could  the  wonderful  samurai  stoicism  and 
honour  have  penetrated  to  the  national  consciousness,  if  the  problem 
of  absorbing  European  ideas  and  customs  had  been  prematurely  forced  .? 
This  very  long  peace  and  isolation  and  self-study  were  necessary  for 
Japan  to  rise  into  that  state  of  self-consciousness  and  self-control 
which  could  stand  the  world  shock  without  crumbling  under  it. 
Otherwise,  the  feudal  system  would  have  fallen  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  Kano  perpetuation  and  study  of  the  Hangchow  art  would 
have    ceased    (as  it  has  ceased  since   1868),  and    all    working    knowledge 


Detail  of  Flower  Screen.     By  Konn. 


Detail  of  I'Lower  Sci 
By  Korin. 


Iiiree  Pieces  of  Pottery 
By  Kenzan. 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC   ART   IN  JAPAN     115 

of  Asia's  past  would  have  been  destroyed  for  Europe  as  well  as  for 
Japan. 

The  one  great  attempt  that  lyeyasu  and  his  successors  made  to 
bring  in  a  new  spiritual  force  for  the  samurai  world  was  the  intro- 
duction of  a  liberal  Confucianism — that  is,  of  the  moral  maxims  as 
taught  in  the  forms  descended  from  the  Hangchow  philosophers,  and 
of  the  agnosticism  of  the  Chinese  learned  world.  This  was  to  be  the 
make-weight  against  the  fanatic  idealism  of  both  Christianity  and 
Buddhism.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  daimios'  Courts  should  be  purely 
ethical.  In  1633  ^he  great  Confucian  University  was  built  at  Yedo, 
for  the  education  of  the  samurai.  But  all  this  did  not  bring  in  the 
Confucian  pedants,  the  "  bunjinga,"  nor  the  stultifying  monotony  of  actual 
education  in  China.  Its  Confucian  tenets  were  made  strangely  to  blend 
with  such  moral  elemeiits  as  had  descended  from  Shinto,  ancestor 
worship,  the  belief  in  the  spirits  of  great  national  heroes,  and  with 
the  samurai  code  of  loyalty  to  the  master.  It  was  a  strange  and 
really  inconsistent  mixture  of  professed  agnosticism  with  profound 
belief.     As    a    moral    syndicate    it    was    effective. 

It  is  time  now  to  inquire  what  was  the  policy  of  this  strange 
mixture  toward  the  problems  of  art.  We  saw  at  the  end  of  the  last 
chapter  that  Yeitoku,  and  his  second  group  of  the  Kano  school,  had 
developed  a  gorgeous  and  decorative  mural  art,  which  inwove  Chinese 
imperial  traditions  with  high  colour  and  gold.  During  the  days  of 
lyeyasu  himself  there  was  apparently  no  open  decision  to  discontinue 
this  style,  though  no  special  prescribing  or  expansion  of  it.  Sanraku 
and  the  sons  of  Yeitoku  continued  to  practise  it  ;  but  now  not  so 
much  in  the  line  of  large  figures  as  in  small  compositions  of  richly- 
coloured  flowers  and  fruits  upon  gold  fans,  or  other  panels  sprinkled 
upon  walls  or  upon  screens.  The  Chinese  figures  in  Tang  palaces 
became  much  more  '  minute,  and  spread  in  panoramic  scenes, 
separated  or  connected  by  passages  of  landscape  and  cloud.  In  some 
designs,  especially  by  Kano  Mitsunobu,  eldest  son  of  Yeitoku,  European 
ships  and  sailors  were  represented  in  gold  and  colours.  Takanobu, 
Yeitoku's  second  son,  has  left  a  fine  bird  painting  of  storks  in  colours 
and  gold  upon  a  two-panel  screen  in  Boston.  Soha  and  Kiuhaku, 
uncles  of  these  men,  also  lived  down  to  this  day  of  minute  figures. 
The  Kano  artists  often  worked  together,  making  a  group  of  paintings, 
say,  on  sixty    fans    or    square    panels,  without  separate    signature,    all  to 


ii6     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

be  eventually  mounted  on  screens.  Kano  Sansetsu,  the  son  of  Sanraku, 
does  beautiful  gold  and  colour  work.  We  must  call  this,  down  to 
lyemitsu's  time,  a  legitimate  continuation  of  the   Yeitoku  school. 

But  already,  and  especially  after  lyemitsu's  accession,  a  change 
seemed  spontaneously  to  take  place  in  a  partial  return  to  more  quiet 
monochrome  painting.  It  is  clear  that  the  gorgeous  vulgar  style  of 
Hideyoshi  would  not  permanently  suit  an  aristocracy  whose  ideal  was 
to  assume  a  kind  of  Spartan  simplicity.  After  all,  Nobunaga  and 
Hideyoshi  had  not  been  Shoguns,  and  their  art  was  no  legitimate 
descendant  of  Ashikaga.  When  lyeyasu  succeeded  to  the  title  of 
Sei-tai-Shogun  in  1602,  after  an  abrogation  since  1573,  it  might  be 
claimed  that  his  Court,  being  the  legitimate  successor  of  Ashikaga 
Yoshimasa's,  should  return  to  something  like  the  dignity  of  fifteenth 
century  style.  But  the  actual  tradition  of  Motonobu's  earlier  Kano 
work  was  already  quite  dead ;  new  generations  had  not  been  trained 
in  his  masterly  touch  ;  where  could  artists  look  for  models  to  study  .'' 
The  new  daimiates  had  hardly  yet  taken  inventory  of  what  Chinese 
treasures  had  come  down  to  them  through  the  prolonged  wars,  and 
there  was  nothing  like  even  Court  museums.  Moreover — and  here 
was  an  important  point — the  Kano  family  was  hereditarily  settled  in 
Kioto,  and  thus  could  hardly  stand  close  to  the  Yedo  Shoguns  as  Court 
painters,  as  Motonobu  had  done  for  Ashikaga.  The  ripe  culture  of  old 
cities  like  Kioto  and  Osaka  could  not  all  at  once  be  transplanted  to 
the  raw  muddy  fields  of  Yedo. 

In  this  second  transitional  change,  which  we  may  suppose  to  extend 
roughly  from  1620  to  1640,  we  have  the  remains  of  the  Yeitoku 
period  of  the  Kano  school  trying  to  work  back  in  some  experimental 
and  original  way  to  monochrome,  and  largely  to  landscape,  and  that, 
too,  Chinese  landscape.  Sanraku  and  Sansetsu  derived  a  rough  mono- 
chrome style  from  their  ancestor,  Kimura  Nagamitsu.  Sansetsu  had 
begun  painting  figure  screens  in  pure  ink,  with  long  decorative  lines. 
Mitsunobu,  the  head  of  the  house  (fifth  generation),  tried  a  new,  very 
blotchy  and  awkward  penmanship.  His  Kano  contemporaries  reviled 
him  as  unskilful.  His  son,  Sadanobu,  however,  began  to  manifest 
considerable  genius,  working  with  angular  ink  touches  of  a  new  sort  ; 
but  he  dies  in  extreme  youth.  It  was  another  pupil  of  Mitsunobu's, 
a  man  named  Koi  (allowed  to  take  the  Kano  name),  who  really  suc- 
ceeded in  striking  out  something  new.     This   consisted  in  blurring  out 


MODERN    ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN  JAPAN     117 

the  washes  of  ink  in  places,  and  leaving  sharp  accents  of  line  in  others. 
It  may  be  called  a  sort  of  mixture  of  Sesshu's  rough  and  careful  styles. 
It  was  quite  free  and  picturesque,  as  if  the  world — a  Chinese  world — 
were  really  crumbling  away.  Koi  has  the  merit  of  really  going  behind 
Motonobu  for  his  own  models — as  far  at  least  as  Sesshu,  yet  without 
copying  slavishly.  After  Mitsunobu's  death,  Kano  Takanobu,  the  second 
son,  came  into  close  friendship  with  Koi,  and  worked  almost  wholly  in 
his  jerky,  free  manner.  His  older  style,  in  ink,  had  been  willowy  and 
wavy,  like  grasses.  Now  when  Takanobu  died,  also  at  an  early  age, 
he  openly  left  by  will  the  care  and  education  of  his  three  young  boys 
to  Koi.  Two  of  these  boys,  Tanyu  and  Naonobu,  were  incipient 
geniuses  ;  the  third,  Yasunobu,  had  skill  enough  to  follow  them  in 
their  exercises. 

Kano  Tanyu,  the  great  genius  of  the  sixth  generation  of  the  Kano 
family,  leaped  into  rapid  prominence  soon  after  1630  by  absorbing, 
consolidating  and  extending  the  new  method  of  work  outlined  by  his 
teacher,  Koi.  He  made  Koi's  blurry  passages  more  blurry,  and  at 
the  same  time  less  muddy.  The  roughest  strokes  which  Sesshu  had 
made  upon  paper  with  a  split,  hairy-edged  hake^  now  became  a 
deliberate  system  of  beautiful  clouding,  by  washes  upon  silk,  so  clear, 
luminous  and  irregular  in  shape  that  they  seemed  like  waving  clouds. 
Through  these  soft  portions  shot  a  few  large  splintery  passages  of 
dark  ink,  not  blue  and  blurry  like  Sesshu's  accents,  but  sharp,  liquid 
and  glossy,  yet  so  irregular  and  incalculable  in  shape,  and  so  softened 
on  one  side  by  a  random  touch  while  wet,  that,  though  carrying  the 
suggestion  of  power,  they  dissolved  into  the  harmonies  of  the  cloud. 
Leaves,  and  other  shapeless  touches  of  pure  accent,  are  like  exploding 
bombs  of  ink.  It  was  a  personal  style,  a  new  technique,  a 
manner  far  less  careful  than  his  great-grandfather,  Motonobu's — 
striking  and  impressionistic,  yet  relatively  superficial.  In  notan  it 
resembled,  somewhat,  Kakei's  roughest  work  ;  but  it  was  really  a 
rough  generalization  of  all  the  great  early  Ashikaga  and  Hangchow 
styles. 

It  was  this  personal  genius  of  Kano  Tanyu,  virtually  inaugurating 
a  third  vital  sub-movement  in  Kano  work,  which  practically  settled 
the  question  of  aristocratic  art  for  the  yashiki.  Here  was  a  man, 
fecund  as  Sesshu  and  Motonobu,  whose  impressionism  recalled,  without 
scholarship  or  deep  belief,  the  refinement  of  the  Ashikaga's,  an  antidote 


ii8     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND  JAPANESE   ART 

for  Yeitoku's  vulgarity,  a  sort  of  marvellous  idealism  whose  merit 
lay  chiefly  in  its  aesthetic  charm.  Tanyu  has  the  merit,  too,  of  going 
behind  Sesshu,  to  the  Chinese  themselves.  He  began  to  explore 
the  treasures  of  yashiki ;  and  he  and  his  brother,  after  the  fire  in- 
Kioto  which  destroyed  all  earlier  copies,  set  to  work  to  make 
transcripts  of  old  masterpieces,  Chinese  and  Japanese.  It  was  thus  a 
great  eclectic  school,  a  minor  renaissance,  translating,  however,  everything 
into  the  new  language  ;  much  like  a  library  of  poetic  masterpieces  done 
into  English.  Tanyu,  too,  was  willing  to  transfer  his  whole  atelier 
from  the  ancient  seats  of  the  Kano  family  in  Kioto  to  the  new 
capital  at  Yedo  ;  and  thus  to  become  "  Court  painter "  of  a  vigorous 
epoch  in  even  a  closer  sense  than  Motonobu  had  been  to  the  late 
Ashikaga's.  For,  inasmuch  as  the  Tokugawa  administration  involved 
a  far  wider  and  organic  hold  upon  the  whole  list  of  daimios  and 
the  samurai  class,  the  institution  of  Court  painter  would  at  once  spread 
its  fashion  to  all  the  minor  Courts.  Thus  the  new  entourage  of  the 
Kano  establishment  at  Yedo  soon  grew  into  great  palaces,  with  hundreds 
of  pupils  and  servants,  an  academy  where  young  boys  were  to  be 
trained  from  an  early  age,  a  great  corps  of  masters  ready  to  decorate 
a  new  palace  at  a  moment's  notice,  a  nest  from  which  a  whole 
bevy  of  painters  for  the  local  daimios  should  escape.  Here  criticism, 
already  begun,  could  become  absolute,  for  the  Shogun  requisitioned 
the  loan  of  all  pictorial  treasures  from  the  daimio,  making  an  inventory 
of  the  remaining  national  treasures,  and  employing  the  Kanos  to  make 
careful  copies  of  the  more  important.  It  was  this  enormous  collection 
of  copies,  particularly  those  by  Yasunobu,  which  I  studied  under  my 
master,  Kano  Yeitoku  3rd,  between  1878  and  1890.  In  this  way 
critical  continuity  was  preserved  with  Hangchow  and  its  traditions  ; 
and  the  chief  works  of  the  Kanos  represented  the  same  great  scenes, 
greatly  generalized,  which  had  become  familiar  in  Ashikaga  art.  Here 
Sesshu's  sketches  made  in  China  did  duty  for  models  a  third  time. 
The  whole  samurai  world  liked  those  pretty  Chinese  poets  and  sages 
in  Tanyu's  transcripts,  those  glimpses  of  Seiko  lake  and  other  famous 
scenes,  much  as  we  like  in  modern  poetry  half-understood  references 
to  "Helian,"  "Pierian  Springs,"  "Mount  Ida,"  and  "The  Vale  of 
Tempe." 

Tanyu's  long  and  triumphant  life,   lasting  into   the   seventies,    estab- 
lished   for  the    whole    subsequent    Kano    age    not  only  fixed  institutions 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN  JAPAN     119 

for  a  Kano  Court  palntership  and  a  Kano  academy,  but  almost  tyrannical 
methods  of  technique.  Tanyu's  brother,  Naonobu,  was  hardly  his 
inferior,  of  a  style  just  a  little  closer  to  Koi's.  Tanyu  used  to  say 
that  Naonobu  "played  Bayen  to  his  Kakei."  Tanyu,  though  the  elder, 
refused  to  inherit  from  his  father,  Takanobu,  proudly  declaring  that  he 
would  found  a  new  family.  The  third  brother,  Yasunobu,  though  less 
skilful,  followed  the  Tanyu  manner  in  the  main,  and  was  adopted  to 
succeed  Sadanobu,  the  lamented  son  of  his  uncle,  Mitsunobu.  Thus  in 
the  first  great  flourishing  age  of  Tokugawa  Court  art,  say  about  1660, 
the  situation    stood    thus  : — 

Mitsunobu.  Yeitoku.  Genshichiro. 

Sadanobu.  Takanobu.  Tanyu. 

I  I 

Yasunobu  (Yasunobu  3rd).     Naonobu  2nd. 

Tsunenobu. 

The  Kano  family  has  thus  split  Into  three  main  branches  (there 
were  other  minor  ones  descended  from  Masanobu),  of  which  Yasunobu, 
who  now  took  the  name  Yeishin,  was  the  theoretical  head,  since 
he  was,  though  by  adoption,  the  successor  of  the  great  Motonobu 
(Yeisen).  But  by  genius  Tanyu  was  the  real  head  to  his  death  In 
1675.  -^7  ^^^^  ^^"^^  Naonobu  too  was  dead;  but  his  son  Tsunenobu, 
though  far  younger  than  the  remaining  uncle  Yasunobu,  was  such  a 
powerful  genius,  a  second  Tanyu  in  fact,  that  for  the  Shoguns'  purposes 
he  succeeded  to  the  actual  headship  of  the  academy.  Tanyu's  sons, 
though  employed,  were  weaker  even  than  Yasunobu.  Tsunenobu  had 
been  trained  lovingly  by  his  uncle  Tanyu,  and  drank  in  his  style  with 
such  assimilation  that  it  Is  to-day  at  times  hardly  possible  to  distinguish 
an  unsigned  Tanyu  from  a  Tsunenobu.  Thus  Tsunenobu  was  able  to 
hold  the  brilliant  Tanyu  style  back  from  degeneration  far  down  Into 
the  eighteenth  century.  With  him,  as  really  fine  creators  in  the 
Tanyu  manner,  were  Tanyu's  pupils  To-un,*  Morlkage  and  Tanzan 
(Yoshinobu),  and  Yasunobu's  pupil,  Icho.  The  recorded  professional 
artists  whose  names  are  on  the  registers  of  1700,  and  whose  style  was 
a  pure  continuation  of  Tanyu's,  number  more  than  200.  Thus  Tanyu, 
in     absorbing    all    function    and    style    into     himself.     Imposed    absolute 

*  Ed.  Note. — To-un  was  an  adopted  son  of  Tanyu. 


I20     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

domination  upon  several  generations  of  Tokugawa  art.  From  Koi,  and 
1630,  to  Chikanobu,  the  inheriting  son  of  Tsunenobu,  in  1740,  the 
whole  great    movement  is  complete    in  its  rise  and  fall. 

But  Tanyu,  like  Motonobu,  was  not  a  man  of  one  manner.  Besides 
his  regular  monochromatic  style,  he  worked  in  mural  decoration  of  gold 
and  light  colour,  not  at  all  heavy  like  Yeitoku's,  but  rather  derived 
from  the  pleasant  light  colouring  upon  figures  of  the  Yuen  artists  or 
even  of  the  early  Ming.  Many  of  the  Tokugawa  palaces  became  very 
o-orgeous,  in  spite  of  sumptuary  laws,  and  the  mortuary  chapels  of 
the  Shoguns,  as  at  Nikko  and  Shiba,  are  overloaded  with  ornament 
mostly  designed  by  men  who  had  studied  in  Tanyu  tradition.  Some 
of  Tanyu's  own  work  is  on  the  walls  of  Nikko,  and  the  design  for 
the  great    carved   wooden  hawks  is   by  him. 

Another  of  Tanyu's  styles  is  derived  from  his  Tosa  descent,  on 
his  great-great-grandmother's  side.  He  afterward  used  Japanese  subjects, 
both  figures  and  landscapes,  and  painted  Tosa  makimono  ;  but  even 
in  these  the  crisp  crumbling  touch  betrays  itself,  so  that  a  Tanyu  Tosa 
is  a  thing  apart  from  all  Tosa.  He  introduced  his  Chinese  manner 
of  writing  even  into  his  Japanese  scenes,  making  the  lines  more  curved, 
and  the  soft  tinting  of  colours  more  melting.  In  this  connection  we 
must  also  speak  of  Tanyu's  work  in  planning  gardens.  That  of  the 
late  Count  Katsu,  at  Kinegawa,  near  Tokio,  has  still  growing  in  it 
ancient  plum  trees,  nearly  two  hundred  years  old,  that  still  shoot  out 
single  branches,  and  grow  sparse  gems  of  buds,  exactly  as  Tanyu 
painted  them  on  his  finest  silk  kakemono.  It  should  also  be  noted 
that  the  whole  round  of  the  decorative  design  of  the  day  is  based 
solely  upon  the  work  of  Tanyu  and  his  pupils.  All  the  designs  for 
wood  carving,  gold  lacquer,  engraving  on  bfass  or  silver,  casting  and 
inlaying  of  iron  or  bronze  implements,  embroidery  of  garments  and 
weaving  of  tapestry,  decoration  in  black  or  colour  upon  pottery,  the 
ornamentation  for  the  newly-imported  porcelains — all  of  these  are  purely 
Tanyu-ish  in  design,  and  can  be  recognized  instantly.  This  fact  only 
exemplifies  the  significance  of  my  change  from  the  usual  method  of 
classifying  these  industrial  arts — so  dear  to  the  connoisseur  collectors 
of  to-day — into  separate  chapters  and  traditions.  Regarded  as  art,  as 
typical  designs,  they  are  as  much  an  off*shoot  of  Tanyu  as  the  very 
painting  of  Tsunenobu.  Not  to  go  into  detail  here,  we  may  say  that 
the  porcelain  of  Ninsei,  the  chasing  of  Somin,  the  lacquer  of  Yamamoto 


Farm  House  and  Peasants.     By  Kano  Koi. 


MODERN    ARISTOCRATIC    ART   IN  JAPAN     121 

Shunsho,    the     ceramic    decorations    of  Kaga  and  Satsuma,    were    all    the 
work  of  Tanyu  pupils. 

Another  special  work  of  Tanyu  was  his  elaborate  study  from  nature. 
In  this  he  differed  from  the  Ashikaga  men,  and  was  more  like  an 
early  Sung  artist.  He  has  left  us  thousands  of  wonderful  studies  of 
fish,  birds,  reptiles,  insects,  flowers,  and  tree  branches,  that  for  pure 
beauty  and  truth  far  surpass  the  more  often  lauded  ones  of  Hokusai. 
Still  another  great  work  of  Tanyu  was  his  miniature  translations  of  old 
masterpieces,  Chinese  and  Japanese.  Thousands  of  these  remain,  giving 
in  minute  free  line  his  impressions  (translated  into  Tanyu  language) 
of  a  Sesshu  or  a  Kakei.  Some  such  impressions  by  Tanyu  himself  were 
later  printed,  and  the  whole  range  of  illustrated  books  by  his  pupil, 
Morikuni,  is  only  an  extension  of  this  line  of  work.  So  Tanyu  stamped 
himself  not  only  on  all  the  art,  but  on  all  the  arts  of  Japan. 

Of  actual  examples  of  Tanyu  we  can  afFord  room  in  this  chapter 
to  refer  only  to  a  few  typical  ones.  They  are  scattered  throughout 
all  the  collections  of  the  world.  In  the  Fenollosa  collection  at  Boston 
alone  there  are  more  than  twenty  paintings,  including  several  screens. 
The  finest  of  these  is  the  poet  leaning  against  a  great  zig-zag  pine 
tree  and  gazing  at  a  waterfall.  A  fine  example  of  Tanyu's  early  style 
is  the  Buddha  seated  amid  clouds,  also  at  Boston  ;  also  the  beautiful 
Mokkei-ish  spray  of  sparrow  and  bamboo  in  Mr.  Freer's  collection. 
Of  his  middle  style  in  landscape,  Mr.  Freer's  square  landscape  with 
summerhouse,  pine  and  waterfall,  is  typical.  Of  his  later  work,  the 
rough  snow  ink  landscape  scene  at  Boston  is  fine,  and  the  great  snow 
scenes  of  Fujiyama  and  vicinity  belonging  to  Mr.  Freer,  Here,  too, 
are  examples  of  his  Japanese  landscapes,  and  the  most  exquisite  of 
his  nature  studies  of  flowers  and  birds,  notably  the  branch  of  biwa 
fruit,  and  the  great  soft  white  spoonbill  fishing.  Many  rolls  of  studies 
from    pupils'    copying    have    come    down    to    us. 

Naonobu's  mural  work  is  seen  to  great  advantage  on  the  walls  of 
the  reception  rooms  of  Chionin  temple  at  Kioto.  A  fine  pair  of  rough 
figure  screens  bought  by  me  at  the  sale  of  the  treasures  of  the  daimio 
Satake  is  in  Boston.  A  very  early  farming  scene  in  Koi's  manner,  also 
from  a  Boston  screen,  is  here  given,  and  a  fine  late  blackbird  on  a 
plum  branch  from  a  Boston  kakemono.  Tsunenobu  is  sufliciently 
illustrated  by  a  downward  flight  of  geese  on  silk  ;  Morikage  by  two 
wild  geese  under  grasses. 


122     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

It  was  during  the  great  period  Genroku,  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  that  the  first  great  conscious  split  between  the  aristocrats  and 
the  plebeians  took  place.  By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  gap  had  become  complete,  the  samurai  being  by  law  cut  off  from 
all  the  live  gaiety  of  the  popular  theatres  and  tea  houses.  Thrown 
back  upon  their  ancient  stock  of  resources,  their  culture  perhaps^ 
consolidated,  but  taking  on  a  hardened  form  in  the  derogatory  senscfH 
It  was  the  same  with  Tanyu  art.  Cut  away  from  what  might  have 
been  a  valuable  inoculation  from  Ukiyoye,  it  fell,  in  the  hands  of 
Tsunenobu's  two  sons^  Chikanobu  and  Minenobu,  Yasunobu's  son 
Tokinobu,  and  Tanyu's  sons,  Tanshin  and  Tansetsu,  into  mere  common- 
place repetition,  without  a  spark  of  genius.  In  fact  this  phase  of  it 
is  to  be  regretted.  It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  it  minutely  into  its 
decay,  only  to  notice  that  Minenobu  founds  a  fourth  principal  branch 
of  the  Kano  family.  It  is  this  tiresome  weakness  of  Tanyuized  art 
about  the  year  1750  that  led  to  Motoori's  famous  diatribe  against  i 
contemporary  art,  which  Professor  Chamberlain  has  mistakenly  quoted 
as  if  Motoori  were  looking  with  our  European  eyes  and  denouncing 
Japanese  art  as  a  whole.  He  was  only  deploring,  as  every  thoughtful 
man  was  deploring,  that  the  art  of  the  samurai  had  at  last  fallen  into 
manufactured  mediocrity  ;  and  he  was  sighing  for  some  new  inspiration, 
a  boon  partly  to  be  granted  in  the  work  soon  to  follow  of  the  youthful 
Okio,  the  founder  of  the  Shijo  school.  Surely  Japanese  art  of  1750 
reaches  the  lowest  ebb  it  fell  to,  unless  it  be  in  the  worst  Tempei  days 
of  Konin  Tenno. 

A  last  revival  of  Kano  art  (fourth  period)  is  brought  about  in  the 
last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  by  Kano  Yeisen,  the  grandson  of 
Chikanobu,  and  his  father,  Furonobu,  who  died  young.  It  is  worth 
speaking  of  because  it  is  a  real  link  in  the  descent  to  us  of  a  know- 
ledge of  Chinese  art.  It  was  part  of  a  general  Japanese  revival,  a  sort 
of  tonic,  that  went  through  all  phases  of  late  eighteenth  century  and 
early  nineteenth  century  life.  It  was  due  to  unconquered  vitality,  but 
without  competent  direction  ;  skill  without  ideals.  We  see  it  in  the 
culmination  of  Okio  in  Kioto,  of  Kiyonaga  in  Yedo,  both  of  1780,  and 
both  of  the  popular  schools.  We  see  it  in  the  great  effort  of  the 
Shoguns  to  reform  interior  abuses,  and  make  themselves  worthy  to 
resist  the  powerful  disintegration  of  a  rising  democracy.  Strict  sump- 
tuary laws  were  passed  for  the   samurai   in  the  early  nineteenth  century  ; 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC   ART   IN  JAPAN     123 

passionate  love  of  military  exercise  and  of  Chinese  scholarship  were 
inculcated ;  every  ancient  Japanese  ideal  was  stimulated  by  a  careful 
censorship  and  encouragement  of  the  No  plays  (descended  from 
Ashikaga).  It  was  as  if  the  whole  Shogunate  gave  itself  a  moral 
bracing  for  the  world  shock,  within  and  without,  which  must  come. 
In  Kano  court  art  this  showed  itself  in  the  most  earnest  scholars  by 
more  of  eclectic  study  than  had  occurred  since  Yoshimasa's  day.  Yeisen 
himself  hardly  went  further  back  than  Motonobu  for  inspiration  ; 
Yosen  touched  Sesshu,  but  Yosen's  son,  Kano  Iseji,  and  his  great  con- 
temporary, about  1820  and  1830,  Kano  Tanshin  second  (the  seventh 
generation  from  Tanyu),  inaugurated  a  careful  collection,  studying, 
re-copying,  re-classifying  and  re-criticizing  of  all  the  original  Chinese 
paintings  owned  in  Japan  (or  at  least  as  many  as  the  Shogun  could 
borrow),  which  made  them  far  more  conversant  with  the  whole  subject 
than  any  Japanese  since  Kano  Masanobu,  three  centuries  before. 
Motonobu  first,  and  then  Tanyu,  had  stood  as  opaque  screens  to  shut 
out  a  real  knowledge  of  ancient  art  from  all  Japan.  It  was  Isen  who 
finally  broke  through  the  screen,  and  made  Kakei,  Bayen,  Mokkei  and 
Ririomin  almost  as  vivid  realities  to  the  anxious  Tokugawa  students  of 
1840  as  they  had  been  to  Sesshu  and  Soami.  Every  daimio  was  then 
keyed  up  to  prize  his  ancestral  collection  as  the  very  backbone  of  a 
healthy  refined  society.  Many  of  the  finest  copies  remaining  of  existing 
or  lost  Chinese  originals  are  the  work  of  Tanshin  Isen,  his  son,  Seisen, 
and  his  grandson,  Shosen,  down  to  the  forced  resignation  of  the  latter 
in  1868.  The  copies  of  the  great  Ririomin  Rakan  in  the  Fenollosa 
collection  at  Boston,  for  instance,  were  bought  by  me  directly  from 
Kano  Tanshin,  the  grandson  of  Tanshin,*  who, with  his  pupils,  had  copied 
them  about  1840.  We  may  say  in  general  that  Isen's  and  Yasunobu's 
earlier  copies  are  the  chief  source,  outside  of  existing  originals,  of  our 
knowledge  of  Chinese  art  in  Japan.  Moreover,  although  the  original 
art  of  these  men  was  imitative,  it  got  a  certain  dignity  out  of  incorporating 
famous  copied  passages  from  the  much-studied  masterpieces.  Thus  in 
a  Seisen  painting  we  might  find  confiscations  of  bits  from  Kakei,  Bayen, 
Sesshu,  and  Motonobu,  making  a  very  "classical"  composition.  What- 
ever the  demerits  of  such  a  fourth  form  of  Kano  original  art,  it  is 
clear  that  in  their  school  of  criticism  they  did  an  immense  amount  to 
ascertain    and    preserve    the  truth.     With  superior  knowledge  they  even 

*  The  grandson  here  of  Kano  Tanshin  Morimichi  must  not  be  confounded  with  his 
ancestor  Kano  Tanshin  Morimasa. — Professor  Petrucci. 

VOL.  II.  I 


i 


124     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

dared  to  reverse  some  of  the  judgments  of  Tanyu  himself.  No  Chinese 
artists  and  critics,  since  the  very  beginning  of  Ming,  at  least,  i.e.,  for 
500  years,  have  had  anything  like  the  insight  into  their  own  ancestors' 
great  art,  as  did  Kano  Isen  and  his  school.  Isen's  brother,  indeed, 
specially  imbued  with  this  scholarship,  is  the  author  of  the  great  Kokwa 
Biko,  MSB.  notes  on  Japanese  art  and  artists,  which  has  only  recently 
been  printed.     The  certificates  of  Isen  are  the  basis  of  Chinese  criticism. 

It  is  worth  while  to  note,  for  this  book,  how  its  work,  my  own 
work,  is  related  to  those  fortunately  belated  and  scholarly  eclectic 
sources.  Isen's  second  son,  Tosen,  became  adopted  as  successor  to  the 
Minenobu  line,  and  his  son,  the  living  Tomonobu,'^''  has  been  one  of  my 
chief  teachers.  Isen's  third  son,  Kano  Yeitoku  Tatsunobu,  was  adopted 
as  patriarch  of  the  Motonobu-Yasunobu  main  Kano  line — main,  that 
is,  rather  in  name,  than  in  power.  The  real  Shogunal  headship 
remained  to  the  end  with  the  Naonobu-Tsunenobu  branch.  Now 
this  third  Yeitoku,  brought  up  in  the  very  centre  of  the  eclectic 
movement  of  1840,  was  my  personal  teacher  in  criticism  of  ancient 
Chinese  and  Japanese  art  from  1878  to  1890.  From  him  I  have 
received  by  letters  patent  the  name  of  Kano  Yeitan  Masanobu,  as  Koi 
received  the  Kano  name  from  Takanobu.  I  consider  it  one  of  the 
greatest  fortunes  of  my  life  to  have  reached  Japan  while  the  direct 
tradition  of  this  renaissance  Tokugawa  scholarship  was  in  full  memory. 
It  is  largely  through  it  that  I  dare  to  write  this  book.  Let  me  add 
that  Kano  Tomonobu  to-day  is  the  only  blood  descendant  of  this 
already  forgotten  school  who  is  alive,  and  practising  his  family  art 
as  he  learned  it  in  the  Shogun's  great  academy  before  1868.  He 
stands  absolutely  alone.     All  the  others  are  dead."]" 

I  am  glad  thus  to  trace  the  real  descent  of  the  line  of  Tang  and 
Sung  Chinese  tradition  to  its  close  in  Japan.  I  deny  that  modern 
Chinese  art  since  middle  Ming  has  anything  to  do  with  this  line  of 
descent.  I  assert  that  it  died  out  of  the  world  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
with  the  one  exception  of  the  island  of  Japan,  where  it  maintained  a  care- 
fully separated  and  guarded  life  for  three  centuries,  due  to  the  fortunate 
isolation  of  Tokugawa  institutions.     I   trust  that  later  research  in  both 

*  Ed.  Note. — It  is  this  same  Kano  Tomonobu,  now  a  very  old  man,  who,  with  Dr.  Nagao 
Ariga,  gave  priceless  and  untiring  assistance  upon  the  manuscript  of  this  book,  in  Tokio, 
during  the  spring  of  1910. — M.  F. 

\  Ed.  Note. — Since  the  writing  of  this  book,  1906,  so  much  has  come  out  of  China, 
that  there  is  no  doubt  this  assertion  would  be  greatly  modified,  if  not  utterly  changed. — 
M.  F* 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN  JAPAN     125 

China  and  Japan  may  eventually  produce  a  still  greater  restoration  ; 
but  even  If  so,  it  will  be  cold  knowledge,  cut  off  from  the  present  heat. 
The  line  from  Godoshi  to  Kano  Tomonobu  breaks  for  ever  at  the 
death  of  the  latter. 

Let  me  now  speak  briefly  of  other  minor  phases  of  Tokugawa 
aristocratic  art  that  flowed  on  parallel  with  the  main  line  of  the 
Kano.  One  Is  a  revived  school  of  Buddhist  hierarchical  painting  of 
altar-pieces  in  gold  and  colours  ;  a  real  revival  of  Yeishin  Sozu  and 
the  old  Kose,  which  did  good  work  about  the  year  1700.  The  finest 
specimens  are  In  such  temples  as  the  third  Shogun's  temple  at  Nikko, 
the  Kuhon-ji  Jodo  temple  of  North-East  Kioto,  and  the  temple  of 
Kofuku-ji  on  the  west  slope  to  the  north-west  of  Nara.  Some  of 
the  work  In  the  latter  Is  as  late  as  the  nineteenth  century. 

A  much  more  Important  movement  was  an  attempted  revival  of 
the  Tosa  family  and  national  art  In  the  seventeenth  century,  a  revival 
which  lasted  on  side  by  side  with  the  Kano  down  to  1868.  The 
very  reaction  of  the  Tokugawa  age  against  the  mediaevalism  and 
excessive  classicism  of  Ashikaga  ought  to  have  been  a  violent  return 
to  Japanese  tradition  and  subject.  And  so  it  would  have  been  but 
for  the  novel  need  of  the  yashikis  and  the  genius  of  Tanyu.  Even 
so,  it  was  strong  enough  to  lead  to  as  real  an  eclectic  re-study  of 
the  Kose,  Kasuga,  Tosa  secular  painting,  as  the  Kano's  re-study  of 
Hangchow  and  Ashikaga.  Two  phases  of  this  revived  Japanese  move- 
ment arose  In  the  middle  and  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
One  was  the  work  of  Tosa  Mitsuoki,  an  alleged  descendant  in  the 
flfth  or  sixth  degree  from  Tosa  MItsunobu.  I  have  already  given  my 
reasons  for  considering  such  a  real  connection  unfounded.  Mitsuoki, 
however,  became  a  favourite  artist  with  the  Imperial  Court  at  Kioto. 
We  may  say  that  he  represents  specially  the  Mikado's  Court,  as  his 
contemporary,  Kano  Tanyu,  does  the  Shogun's.  Mitsuoki's  work  is 
delicate,  and  his  colouring  rich,  but  without  any  close  relation  to  ancient 
Tosa.  It  Is  just  pretty  drawing  of  Japanese  subject  with  a  considerable 
Kano  sub-flavour  In  It.  It  Is  Tosa  permeated  with  Tanyu,  as  Mr. 
Freer's  beautiful  Benten  shows.  He  and  his  descendants  continued 
to    live    In    Kioto. 

The  other  movement  was  started  by  a  Tosa  style  of  painter  about 
1650,  named  SumlyoshI  Jokei.  He  was  much  more  of  an  eclectic 
Tosa    scholar   than  Mitsuoki.      He    deliberately    studied    and  copied    all 


126     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

the  makimono  of  Keion,  Toba,  Mitsunaga  and  Nobuzane  he  could 
get  his  hands  on.  His  son  Gukei  developed  a  microscopically  minute 
style,  something  like  Kasuga  Takachika's  manner.  From  here  the 
Sumiyoshis  moved  to  Yedo,  and  became  to  the  Shoguns,  on  a  minor 
scale,  critics  and  painters  where  Tosa  tradition  was  needed,  quite  as 
the  Kano  were  critics  and  painters  for  Chinese  tradition.  In  this  way 
the  later  Sumiyoshis  came  to  be  almost  as  good  scholars  in  their 
narrower  line,  as  the  Kanos  in  theirs.  Sumiyoshi  Hirosada  was  the 
contemporary  of  Kano  Isen.  He  travelled  among  temples  all  over 
Japan  to  study  examples,  and  copy,  of  the  ancestral  Tosa  work. 
It  was  his  grandson  Hirokata  who  was  my  personal  teacher,  also 
the  teacher  of  Yamana,  the  last  great  Tosa  critic.     Both  are  now  dead. 

In  so  far  as  we  have  considered  Tokugawa  aristocratic  art,  it  has 
been,  even  the  Kano,  only  survival  with  modification.  No  doubt  the 
personal  genius  of  Tanyu  makes  him  a  great  figure,  and  the  whole 
daimio  world  was  stamped  with  his  design.  And  yet  one  other 
movement,  and  quite  separate,  took  place  in  early  Tokugawa  art, 
which  though  in  a  minor  sense  was  also  a  survival,  is  so  modified, 
so  original,  so  splendid,  that  it  overshadows  Tanyu  and  the  whole 
Kano  school,  and  becomes  one  of  the  three  new  keynotes  of  the 
fifth  Japanese  period.  I  refer  to  the  school  commonly  spoken  of  as 
the  "  Korin,"  but  which  should  be  headed  more  properly  with  the 
name    of  Korin's    teacher,    Koyetsu. 

The  national  significance  of  this  school  as  a  whole  has  only  been 
recently  understood,  since  indeed  Mr.  Freer,  of  Detroit,  has  brought 
together  so  many  of  its  striking  pieces,  and  especially  of  the  work 
of  Koyetsu.  Masterpieces  of  this  school  have  always  been  highly 
prized  by  Japanese  collectors,  especially  men  of  the  Kuge  class  ;  but 
they  had  become  so  scattered  by  the  nineteenth  century,  and  almost 
forgotten,  that  little  was  seen  or  said  of  them  when  I  first  visited 
Japan  in  1878.  Korin's  lacquer  was  of  course  well  known  in  Europe, 
and  Koyetsu's  known  by  name  ;  also  Kenzan's  pottery  was  celebrated  ; 
but  that  the  work  of  all  these  men — connected  with  a  fourth,  almost 
unknown  name,  Sotatsu — had  founded  a  great  centralized  school  of 
design  based  upon  mural  painting,  and  that  their  industrial  design 
is  only  an  offshoot  from  this,  was  not  at  all  suspected.  In 
truth  the  school  had  suffered  from  possessing  no  historian  who 
had    preserved    biographical    and    other    facts    striking    to    the    popular 


MODERN    ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN  JAPAN     127 

imagination.  Little  tradition  of  technique  or  account  of  studio 
experiences  remained.  In  short,  a  large  part  of  what  is  vital 
in  its  history  has  got  to  be  made  up  out  of  the  only  original 
documents,  their  works,  themselves.  When  I  wrote  my  review  of 
Gonse's  "  L'Art  Japonais  "  in  1884,  I>  ^oOj  was  ignorant  that  Koyetsu 
had  been  a  great  painter,  because  I  had  never  seen  an  undoubted 
example  of  him.  His  paintings  were  neither  in  temple  nor  daimio 
collections.  And  we  have  since  found  that  many  of  them  were  passing 
under  the  better  known  names  of  Korin  and  Kenzan.  To  rehabilitate 
the  fame  of  Koyetsu,  as  the  founder  of  the  school,  and  by  far  the 
greatest  artist  of  Tokugawa  days — in  fact  one  of  the  greatest  artists  of 
any    race — is    one    of   my    satisfactions    in    writing   this    book. 

The  Koyetsu-Korin  school  of  design — painting  and  industries — is, 
first  of  all,  a  prime  sign  of  that  natural  return  to  Japanese  subject, 
after  the  Ashikaga  debauch  of  idealism,  which  otherwise  Tanyu  so 
nearly  frustrated  by  his  Chinese  renaissance.  Only  grudgingly  did 
the  Kanos  yield  to  a  growing  demand  for  Japanese  landscape  ;  only 
weakly,  and  in  a  cold  scholastic  imitation,  did  the  Tosa  and  Sumiyoshi 
pupils  revive  the  makimono  forms  of  Kamakura  art.  Taking  all  their 
productions  in  a  single  mass,  we  could  hardly  regard  it  as  any  vital 
return  to  nationality  in  the  art  of  the  yashiki.  But  the  Koyetsu- 
Korin  school  was  specifically  grounded  in  a  study  of  Japanese 
forms,  first  of  all  in  a  profound  re-study  of  all  the  great  work  of  the 
ancient  Tosa  and  Fujiwara  schools,  and  then  in  a  restatement  of  this 
through  personal  genius,  a  clear  re-adaptation  to  new  conditions.  It  got  far 
closer  to  the  heart  of  the  creators  of  1200  than  the  pseudo-Tosas  could 
do,  because  its  purpose  was  not  scholastic  but  creative.  We  may  say  in 
general  that  what  it  does  is  to  translate  motives  and  even  much  of  the 
technique  of  ancient  Tosa  art — the  miniature  art  of  the  makimono — 
into  the  great  new  scale  demanded  for  palace  mural  decoration.  The 
great  broad  landscapes,  in  gold  and  colours,  of  Koyetsu  are  only 
supremely  great  "enlargements"  of  microscopic  gardens  seen  in  the  old 
Tosa  panoramas.  But  this  change  of  scale  of  course  implies  enormous 
changes  of  execution,  of  massing,  of  colouring,  of  outline.  It  may  be 
called  the  true  Japanese  school  of  "  impressionism  ;  "  for  what  Besnard's 
glowing  walls  are  to  modern  French  art,  Koyetsu's  and  Korin's  are  to 
Japanese.  It  is  neither  realism  nor  idealism,  as  we  ordinarily  misuse  these 
words  ;  it  attempts  to  give  an  overmastering  impression,  a  feeling  vague  and 


128     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

peculiarly  Japanese,  as  if  the  whole  past  of  the  race  with  all  its  passions 
and  loves  surged  back  in  a  gigantic  race  memory  inwrought  in  the 
inheriting  nerves — a  patriotism  as  gorgeous  and  free  and  colossal  as 
one's  grandest  dreams.  In  this  line  played  a  part,  but  line  as  far 
removed  from  Chinese  or  Kano  line  as  can  well  be  conceived — always 
a  wavy  curve,  often  soft,  even  lighter  in  tone  than  the  mass  it  bounded, 
line  often  executed  in  colour  rather  than  in  ink.  Then  came  colour, 
as  the  great  body  of  the  impression  ;  rocky  trees,  clouds,  figures, 
masses  of  blooming  shrubs,  all  became  magnificently  placed  spots  of 
scarlet,  purple,  orange,  olive,  yellow — and  a  thousand  unnameable  modi- 
fications of  those — as  if  they  were  the  panes  of  a  stained-glass  window. 
It  was  this  supreme  decorative  use  of  the  Tosa  line  and  colour  that 
shocked  scientific  Englishmen  like  Dr.  William  Anderson.  He 
denounced  Korin's  style  as  a  most  vicious  mannerism,  the  farthest 
removed  from  nature,  as  if  It  were  a  kind  of  childish  toy.  But  as  a 
purely  artistic  school  of  impressionism  adapted  to  great  mural  decoration, 
future  critics  will  doubtless  place  it  ahead  of  anything  that  the  world 
has  ever  produced.  Greek,  Florentine  and  even  Venetian  wall  painting, 
however  gorgeous,  is  just  a  bit  too  tangible,  just  a  bit  too  much  like 
coloured  sculpture.  Magnificent  orchestrations  of  line  and  colour,  which 
only  suck  up  as  much  of  natural  suggestion  as  they  care  to  hold,  here 
show  for  the  first  time  what  art  of  the  future  must  become.  Even 
Besnard  is  too  conscious  of  being  a  kind  of  negative  pole  to  nature, 
a  kind  of  bravura  defiance  of  realism.  Koyetsu  is  both  as  naive,  as 
positive,  as  sumptuous,  as  Shakespeare.  Perhaps  Whistler,  if  he  could 
have  had  opportunity  to  develop  along  the  mural  line,  would  also 
have  worked  in  that  sphere.  As  for  Hangchow,  it  lacks  the  full 
orchestration  of  colour  ;  it  is  great  church  music.  The  school  of 
Yeitoku  comes  nearest  to  Koyetsu  in  purely  decorative  value,  but  in 
subject  it  is  far  more  insincere  and  alien.  Yes,  we  may  call  this 
Korin    school    the    Japanese    school  of  impression. 

But  now,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  to  note  that  it  becomes 
Japanese  in  the  special  sense  of  making  a  more  profound  and  true 
study  of  Japanese  objects,  particularly  vegetable  forms  and  flowers, 
than  any  other  school,  a  truer  study  of  such  subjects  than  any  school 
of  any  race.  Here  we  may  seem  involved  in  a  contradiction  ;  but  we 
gladly  court  it.  Do  we  say  that  this  school  is  at  once  the  most 
impressionistic    and    the    most    true  ?     Yes  ;    and    this    only    brings    into 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC    ART   IN  JAPAN     129 

relief  the  false  antinomies  of  our  popular  phrase.  The  strongest 
impression  is  got  from  truth  ;  but  this  does  not  mean  that  a  mass 
of  unrelated  photographic  truths  give  the  strongest  impression.  They 
kill  each  other;  they  produce  no  unified  truth.  Art  is  first  of  all 
unity  of  impression  ;  but  into  this  unity  can  be  thrown  and  melted 
every  serviceable  form  that  generous  nature  can  supply.  This  infinite 
beauty  ^nd  "chemical  affinity"  (so  to  speak)  of  lines  and  colours  in 
nature  only  a  supreme  genius — a  soul  already  soaked  with  line  and 
colour^can  see.  When  such  an  one,  like  Koyetsu,  does  see  them,  we 
get  at  once  a  depth  of  impression  and  a  revelation  of  truth  that  trans- 
figure the  world.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  we  can  call  the  chief  masters^ 
of  this  Korin  school  the  greatest  painters  of  tree  and  flower  forms 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  With  them,  these  by  us  somewhat 
despised  subjects  rise  to  the  dignity  and  divinity  with  which  Greek 
art  revealed   the    human   figure.  -» 

The  rivalry  between  this  more  sensuous  school  and  the  contempo- 
rary severity  of  Tanyu's  art  concerns  a  certain  contradiction  within  the 
make-up  of  the  yashiki  life  itself.  On  the  one  hand,  a  million  of 
aristocrats,  with  all  the  money  of  the  land  and  all  the  time  of  their 
lives  at  their  disposal,  would  naturally  weave  about  themselves  an 
environment  of  gorgeous  luxury.  But,  on  the  other,  lyeyasu's  policy 
of  training  the  whole  buke  *  world  to  a  Spartan  hardihood,  simplicity 
and  soldierly  honour — a  cross  between  Chinese  and  Shinto  ethics — 
required  that  luxury  should  be  sternly  suppressed.  It  was  between 
these  two  poles  of  tendency  that  Tokugawa  life  oscillated.  In  the 
seventeenth  century  perhaps  the  sharpness  of  the  contradiction  was  not 
realized.  Tanyu  and  Koyetsu  were  rival  contemporaries.  There  were 
sudden  reactions  against  luxury  and  colour  and  art  in  the  early 
eighteenth  century,  and  again  in  the  early  nineteenth.  The  ministrations 
of  the  Korin  school,  in  so  far  as  it  affected  the  daimio,  always  belonged 
to  the  more  generous  living.  Korin  himself  belongs  to  the  rococo 
age  of  Genroku  (1688 — 1704). 

But  another  antagonism  brought  out  by  these  two  leading  schools 
concerns  the  duality  of  the  two  Courts,  Shogun's  and  Mikado's.  It 
is  true  that  the  Kanos,  even  Sansetsu,  painted  in  the  imperial  palace  ; 
and  it    is    true    that    the    daimios   loved    Korin's   lacquers   and    Kenzan's 

♦"Buk^" "bu" — house — and  "ke"  clan.      Used  as  a  feudal  term  in  opposition  to 

"  kug^  " — the  Kioto  Court  daimios. 


130     EPOCHS   OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

tea-bowls.  Yet,  roughly,  it  can  be  said  that  the  Koyetsu-Korin 
movement  specifically  reflects  the  thought  of  the  imperial  nobles,  the 
Kano  movement  that  of  the  feudal.  It  is  true  the  poor  kuge  had 
little  wealth  to  expend  in  splendour  ;  on  the  other  hand  they  had  no 
moral  prejudice  against  it.  A  Fujiwara  descendant  assumed  a  life  of 
gold  and  colour  as  a  natural  environment.  He  was  immersed  in 
Japanese  literature,  not  in  some  Chinese  philosophy.  In  short  he  was 
a  cavalier,  and  no  roundhead  like  the  conservative  wing  of  the  samurai. 
Thus  we  can  see  the  Korin  school  to  favour  Japanese  subject,  imperial 
prestige,  daimio  luxury,  a  return  to  nature,  and  a  genius  for  bold 
impressionism.     All   this   is  one  side  of  the  Tokugawa  soul. 

The  founder  of  the  great  aristocratic  school  is  Honnami  Koyetsu, 
of  whose  life  we  know  little  from  documents,  beyond  that  he  was  a 
master  of  lacquer  painting.  What  I  say  here  is  inferred  almost  solely 
from  his  works.  It  is  from  these  that  I  now  trace  his  derivation  from 
preceding  forms,  and  his  growth  into  self-consciousness,  for  the  first 
time. 

That  his  mural  quality,  his  use  of  rich  deep  colour,  and  of  clouding 
in  gold  and  silver  leaf,  grow  naturally  out  of  the  second  stage  of 
Kano  Yeitoku's  school  is  made  perfectly  clear  by  several  of  the 
specimens  in  Mr.  Freer's  collection.  First  among  these  we  have  the 
magnificent  ivy  screen,  in  which  dull  red  and  olive  and  silvery  vine 
leaves  (of  the  ampelopsis)  fall  down  over  a  ground  of  silver  leaf. 
Here  there  is  almost  nothing  of  Tosa  suggestion,  only  the  taking  of 
the  sort  of  colouring  used  by  Yeitoku  in  his  gorgeous  flower  screens, 
omitting  the  use  of  line  in  the  drawing,  and  making  the  play  of 
ground  colour  and  over  glazing  more  free  and  decorative.  Nothing 
more  splendid  than  the  grace  of  these  falling  leaves  was  ever  achieved 
by  Hangchow  Chinese.  We  should  compare  this  with  the  Yeitoku 
Fuji  vine  and  grape  vine  screens.  Most  of  his  work  in  the  semi-Kano 
line  is  found  upon  fan  screens,  that  is,  the  same  sort  of  gold  leaf 
or  colour  fan,  sprinkled  about  on  a  ground  often  itself  gold,  and  painted 
in  flowers  and  landscapes,  mostly  in  rich  colours,  by  all  the  Kano  pupils 
of  Yeitoku,  between  1600  and  1620,  perhaps  to  1630.  Such  screens, 
to  meet  just  the  same  early  Tokugawa  taste,  were  devised  by  Koyetsu, 
and  sometimes  combine  in  the  thirty  or  more  fan  paintings  of  a  single 
screen,  colour  designs  of  Kano  quality  and  of  Tosa  quality,  and  even 
ink  designs  of  Kano  quality.       Such    fans    are   wonderfully  grouped,  at 


Ivy  Screen — Two  Panels.     Koyetsu. 
Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer. 


9-i 


a  o 
•/1 .2 


I 


MODERN    ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN   JAPAN     131 

infinitely  varying  angles,  over  a  ground  of  gold  or  silver,  sometimes 
cut  itself  into  a  broadly-painted  design  with  water,  boats  and  bridges. 
Such  a  coloured  Kano  design,  really  much  in  the  earlier  style  of  Kano 
Takanobu,  and  even  with  outline,  is  the  white  lilies  with  olive-coloured 
leaves.  Quite  Yeitoku-ish,  too,  are  spotted  leaves  of  maple  in  gold 
raised  to  relief,  or  in  clouded  masses  of  red  ;  like  the  Yeitoku  gold 
and  coloured  maples  in  Boston.  Somewhat  more  Tosa-ish  is  the  fan 
design  of  a  great  purple  iris,  where,  however,  a  little  Kano-ish  outline 
remains.  It  is  the  freedom  of  the  petal  drawing  here,  and  the  solid 
impasto  colouring  that  Korin  copies  later  ;  Korin's  irises  look  as  if 
they  might  be  Tosa,  but  this  is  really  not  Tosa  :  rather  a  realistic  study 
of  the  flower  and  the  leaf  in  something  like  Kano  pigment.  Really 
Tosa-ish  is  the  fan  with  raised  white  chrysanthemums,  below  which 
flows  dark  Tosa  water  breaking  into  bubbles.  Another  fine  pair  of 
Mr.  Freer's  screens  which  shows  a  mixture  of  Kano  and  nature  study, 
combined  with  a  feeling  like  lacquer  decoration,  is  the  symphony  in 
gold,  of  delicate  grasses  and  strong  chrysanthemums,  all  in  relief  and 
in  gold  paint,  over  a  ground  of  soft  gold  leaf.  Among  these  flowers 
are  sprinkled  square  "  shikj-shij"  or  forms  upon  which  Japanese  poems  X 
2CCQ  to  be  written.  The  grounds  of  these  arc  tinted,  and  then  over- 
painted  in  broad  flower  designs  of  thin  tone  in  gold  and  silver.  Over 
these  delicate  paintings,  which  are  hardly  more  than  cloud-films,  Koyetsu 
has  written  out  Japanese  poems  in  his  own  magnificent  and  inimitable 
handwriting.  In  the  chrysanthemum  panel  which  we  reproduce,  the 
stiflF  relieved  flowers  and  the  hagi  bush  are  again  like  the  work  of 
Kano  Takanobu,  Tanyu's  father,  below  the  shiki-shi  a  softer  blurry 
hagi  design  is  studied  from  nature  on  paper  that  soaks  up  the  diluted 
gold  pigment.  The  glossy  purple-black  of  the  poem's  words  blends 
incredibly  with  those  leaves.  Such  a  unique  feeling  for  spacing,  placing 
and  spotting  has  never  elsewhere  been  exhibited  in  the  world's  art. 
Koyetsu's  is  as  new  a  species  in  spacing  as  Shakespeare's  is  a  new 
species    in  drama. 

But  it  is  evident  that  Koyetsu  was  not  satisfied  with  this  derivation 
of  his  art  from  Kano  pigment  and  natural  motive  combined.  He 
wanted  a  characteristically  Japanese  feeling  to  enter  into  his  style;  and 
for  this  purpose  deliberately  went  back,  before  Mitsuoki,  to  study  the 
greatest  masterpieces  of  figure  and  tree  painting  among  the  old  Tosas. 
In    the   midst  of  much  degenerate    Tosa   work,    which    would    be    more 


132     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

plentifully  offered  for  his  inspiration,  he  evidently  chose  only  the 
greatest  creators — namely,  Mitsunaga,  Keion,  Nobuzane  and  Tsunetaka. 
In  the  small  Tosa-ish  figure  drawings  he  probably  copied  outright  some 
passage  of  the  old  original ;  but  in  most  cases  he  made  a  new 
composition,  in  the  style  of  the  older  men.  This  new  drawing  and 
colouring  are  so  vigorous,  so  full  of  genius,  that  they  do  not  fall 
below  the  originals  themselves.  Here  Koyetsu  appears  as  a  fifth 
sporadic  Tosa,  creating  in  the  grandest  manner  four  hundred  years 
after  the  originators.  What  Sesshu  is  to  Kakei,  so  is  Koyetsu  to 
Keion.  Here,  as  in  the  flower  fans,  appear  early  forms  of  nearly  all 
the  kinds  of  composition  treated  later  by  Korin.  The  thunder  god 
descends  in  a  cloud,  as  in  Nobuzane's  Kiteno  panorama  ;  Emperors  ride 
among  cherry  trees  in  bull  carts  ;  crowds  of  men  and  women  listen  to 
a  Buddhist  service  on  temple  steps,  as  in  Nobuzane  ;  warriors  prance 
upon  turning  horses  as  in  Keion.  The  attitude  of  the  armoured  chief 
on  a  white  horse  who  stops  and  turns  backward  in  his  saddle,  is  some- 
thing that  only  Nobuzane  or  Keion  (besides  himself)  could  do.  Here 
the  horse's  head  has  been  so  violently  jerked  as  to  disappear  behind 
the  warrior.  The  spotting  of  the  colour  and  the  clouding  of  the  gold 
are  most  broad  and  picturesque.  The  greatest  piece  in  this  line  is  the 
capture  of  an  aide  who  seems  trying  to  swallow  his  despatches.  Five 
rough  soldiers  of  the  enemy  cling  to  the  plunging  horse.  The  violence 
and  vigour  are  so  like  Keion  that  we  are  inclined  to  believe  this  to  be 
a  copy  of  some  lost  original  ;  a  Fujiwara  noble  on  a  verandah  is  like 
Mitsunaga.  The  young  man  poling  a  boat  through  rapids  we  can 
recognize  for  a  Tsunetaka.  Here  the  big  waves  at  the  bottom  of  the 
whole  screen   come  against   the  small   ones  of  the   fan. 

But  if  these  are  the  three  derivations  of  Koyetsu,  what  unites  and 
expands  them  is  the  splendid  taste  of  his  own  decorative  invention. 
Kano  colour,  Tosa  line  and  feeling,  and  nature  impressions,  these  shall  be 
unified  and  enlarged  to   mural  scale. 

Probably  this  sort  of  experimental  work  of  Koyetsu,  and  his  following 
of  the  Kano  taste  for  fan  screens,  was  completed  before  the  date  1 640. 
His  culmination  then  would  be  simultaneous  with  Tanyu's.  Among 
the  greatest  and  most  original  of  his  finished  works  are  the  two  great 
"  Corn  "  screens  in  Mr.  Freer's  collection,  which  are  perhaps  fragments 
of  large  mural  compositions.  Indian  corn,  a  food  plant  of  American 
origin,    had    been     introduced    into    Japan     by     the     Spaniards    in    the 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC   ART    IN  JAPAN     133 

preceding  century.  But  what  artists  of  any  race  have  ever  divined  its 
extraordinary  suggestion  of  line  and  motion  in  wind,  as  this  alien 
Asiatic  ?  The  more  defaced  screen  shows  over  a  ground  of  tarnished 
silver  a  great  mass  of  cornstalks  and  sweeping  leaves  which  the  wind 
has  beaten  over  into  great  curves.  Up  through  the  pale  olive  stems 
clamber  the  blue  and  pink  faces  of  morning  glories.  Shooting  like  a 
rocket  into  the  corn  tangle  on  the  right  is  a  great  monster  scarlet  cox- 
comb, with  leaves  mottled  into  claret  and  amber.  The  incredible 
suggestion  of  the  colour  we  cannot  hope  to  convey  ;  but  the  unheard- 
of  spacing  and  line  rhythm  of  the  corn  massing  can  only  be  compared 
with  the  greatest  Greek  work,  or  with  the  lines  of  Sesshu's  wild  stork 
and  tangled  Jurojin.  Here  are  mere  vegetable  forms  elevated  to 
Parthenon  dignity.  It  is  an  ultra  symphony  of  corn,  every  quality 
being  based  upon  actual  suggestion,  yet  combined  Into  pure  line 
splendour. 

The  swathing  leaves  of  the  left  panel  are  as  perfectly  decorative  In 
their  use  as  a  Greek  acanthus,  yet  as  free  as  nature.  The  veining  of 
their  darker  olive  sides  are  in  fine  gold  lines.  But  the  tangle  of 
the  panel  on  the  right  Is  like  bursting  bombs.  Here  four  silvery 
cornstalk  tips,  beaten  almost  flat  by  the  wind,  cross  together  at  zig- 
zag angle,  the  fiery  uplift  of  the  coxcomb.  A  few  small  morning  glory 
fireballs  dare  to  touch  off  the  explosion.  In  the  largest  reproduction 
of  this  bomb  corner  we  can  see  that  the  crown  of  one  of  the  coxcombs 
has  Itself  almost  been  split  to  pieces.  The  opaque  scumbllngs  of  the 
creamy  paint  would   have  delighted  Whistler. 

The  other  corn  screen,  also  two-panelled,  is  on  gold,  and  more 
brilliantly  preserved  in  colour.  Here  the  line-unity  and  the  wind- 
destruction  are  neither  so  violent  nor  complete.  The  upright  drum- 
major  wand  of  the  enormous  crimson  coxcomb  centres  the  composition. 
The  corn  tassels  are  here  more  gracefully  flung,  and  through  the  leaves 
we  can  see  grain  in  the  ear.  The  morning  glories  are  in  pink  scumbled 
over  pale  blue.  We  can  see  from  the  left  panel  enlarged  that  Koyetsu 
kept  his  infinite  tangle  as  clear  In  notan  passage  as  in  line.  This  is 
supreme  free  spotting,  to  which  no  Greek  mosaic  or  Velasquez  reaches. 
The  great  crimson-dark  ball  of  the  upper  comb  on  the  right  panel 
contrasts  wonderfully  with  the  lower  one  In  lemon  cadmium,  spattered 
with  water-melon  red.  The  close  juxtaposition  of  this  latter  with  the 
broken  corn   tassel  makes  a  splendid  passage. 


134     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

But  one  of  the  finest  existing  screens  by  Koyetsu  is  that  bought  by- 
Mr.  Yamanaka  at  the  1904  sale  of  the  Gillot  collection  in  Paris.  It  had 
always  been  listed  in  France  as  a  Kenzan,  for  it  is  unsigned.  On 
seeing  it  in  New  York,  after  a  recent  study  of  Mr.  Freer's  Koyetsu, 
I  immediately  declared  it  to  be  a  fine  Koyetsu,  and  it  has  recently 
been  exhibited  under  that  name  at  the  Boston  Museum.  It  represents 
the  lateral  flow  across  the  six  panels  of  a  river  in  low-toned  cream 
and  silver.  The  lines  of  this  flow  are  conceived  on  the  grandest  scale. 
The  ground  through  which  the  river  flows  is  warm  brownish  paper 
spotted  with  tarnished  silver.  A  note  of  accent  is  given  near  the 
centre  of  the  lower  edge  by  a  rock  in  dull  tones  of  olive  and  copper. 
Across  this  ground  ascend,  nearly  vertically,  two  chief  masses  of  growth  : 
on  the  right  a  strong  magnolia  tree  in  deep  browns,  olives  and  dark 
warm  yellows,  and  soft  river  grasses  in  a  scumbled  cream  lighter  than 
the  river ;  on  the  left  an  icho  tree  with  its  autumn  fan-leaves  of 
cadmium,  combined  with  a  full-leaved  maple  that  shades  into  dull 
scarlet  and  cream.  A  few  very  softly  massed  shrubs  in  pale  brownish- 
olive  arise  in  the  centre  of  the  middle  distance  from  the  river  border, 
and  right  in  the  centre  of  this  mass  a  single  large  wild  carnation  blooms 
of  an  indescribable  low  pink.  This  one  little  spot  centres  the  whole 
muffled  autumn  colouring  of  the  screen.  The  line  tangle  on  the 
right,  of  magnolia,  carnations,  river  and  grasses,  though  simpler  than 
the  corn  screen,  rises  in  grandeur  of  pure  spacing  to  Phidias,  Godoshi 
and  Sesshu.  The  aesthetic  purity  and  loftiness  of  both  line  and  colour 
come  out  In  perfect  combination. 

We  have  given  so  much  time  to  Koyetsu  as  a  painter,  for  in  this 
line  grew  and  had  Its  being  his  universal  power  of  design.  In  his 
well-known  lacquer,  whether  plain  or  inlaid,  we  have  the  most  perfect 
use  of  material  to  express  the  forms  and  colour  of  his  conception.  He 
loved  to  work  on  small  boxes,  particularly  suzuri  bako,  or  Ink  stone 
boxes.  Here  some  scene  from  Fujiwara  reminiscence  fell  quaintly 
across  the  space,  or  one  of  the  same  perfect  suggestions  of  the  flower 
world  which  rise  to  grandeur  in  his  great  screens.  One  of  the  most 
brilliant  of  his  boxes  shows  a  group  of  painted  shells.  In  which  part 
of  the  outline  Is  made  by  an  actual  inlay  of  pearl  In  Korlnnlsh  line. 
In  other  parts  the  design  is  an  inlay  of  shell  ;  in  other  parts  of  gold 
pigment  raised  in  lacquer.  The  designs  of  flowers  and  trees  in  the 
shells    show  how  the  grandeur    of  a    great    design    Is    equally    realizable 


-K^^ 


ThkilE  Nui:i-i:men  in  Iris  Garden. 
By  Konn. 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN  JAPAN     135 

on  a  small  scale,    the  shore  with    pine    trees    being    the    most    beautiful 
vague  suggestion  of  such  a  subject  in  art. 

But  though  European  collectors  and  translators  of  Japanese  books 
know  Koyetsu  chiefly  as  a  lacquerer,  he  was  an  equally  stupendous 
adapter  of  nature  design  to  artistic  pottery.  The  finest  example  is  a 
keramic  box  owned  by  Mr.  Freer,  on  the  cover  of  which  lies,  in 
rough  raised  glazes,  a  landscape  worthy  of  Hangchow.  This  is  thrown 
in  as  if  with  one  of  our  palette  knives  in  solid  glaze  pigments  which 
come  out  in  tones  of  brown  and  green  over  a  light  dull  strawberry 
ground.  The  sun  blazes  in  a  slightly  brighter  paint.  This  is 
probably  the  greatest  piece  of  pottery  painting  in  Japanese  art.  It 
will  possibly  develop,  as  investigation  proceeds,  that  Koyetsu  was  also 
an  architect,  an  interior  decorator,  and  a  designer  for  hammered  iron 
and  bronze.     But  his  supreme  work  is  as  a  painter. 

We  come  now  to  the  second  of  the  four  giants  of  this 
school,  Tawaraya  Sotatsu.  Kano  tradition  has  it  that  he  was  at  first 
a  pupil  of  Sansetsu,  and,  indeed,  some  of  his  early  flower  pieces, 
like  Koyetsu's,  have  a  hard  outline  which  directly  relates  them  to  the 
style  of  the  Yeltoku  period  of  the  Kano.  Sotatsu's  work  matures 
somewhat  later  than  Koyetsu's,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  he 
received  his  second  and  strongest  influence  from  Koyetsu's  work. 
He,  too,  took  his  subjects  from  a  combination  of  Tosa  suggestion  and 
nature  study  of  flowers  In  rich  impressionistic  colour.  He  is  solely  a 
painter,  no  work  In  lacquer  or  pottery  having  yet  been  attributed  to 
him.  He  paints  on  screens,  too,  of  mural  scale  ;  but  a  larger  part 
of  his  work  than  Koyetsu's  is  upon  medium  or  small  kakemono,  such 
as  could  have  been  hung  in  modest  apartments  or  diminutive  tea- 
rooms. He  Is  less  creatively  Imaginative  than  Koyetsu,  less  forcing 
nature  to  subserve  his  gigantic  schemes  of  line  and  colour.  He  is 
more  passive  in  his  study  of  nature,  letting  his  compositions  take  just 
the  groupings  which  stem,  leaves  and  blossoms  would  assume.  He  is  thus 
less  splendidly  decorative  In  his  total  conceptions  than  Koyetsu,  yet  capable 
of  the  most  wonderful  minor  passages  in  form  of  stem  and  leaf,  and  the  oppo- 
sition of  their  unconventional  lines  and  masses.  Occasionally  he  indulged 
in  semi-Tosa  figure  work.     Far  more  of  his  work  remains  than  of  Koyetsu's. 

Among    the    finest    Sotatsus    owned    In    Japan    is    the    great    pair    ot 
wave    screens,     formerly    In    a    private    collection    in    Sakai.*       Here  in 
*  Editor's  Note. — Now  among  the  chief  treasures  of  the  Freer  Collection. 


^ 


136     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

the  splash  of  water  against  rocks  and  in  the  decorative  arrangement 
of  the  tree  we  have  probably  an  early  composition  in  which  there  is 
a  trace  of  Sansetsu's  influence.  It  is  almost  as  grand  as  a  Koyetsu. 
How  much  Korin  must  have  derived  from  this  is  seen  in  Korin's 
o-reat  wave  screen  in  Boston.  Sotatsu's  finest  pieces  in  Boston  are 
a  small  kakemono  showing  two  wild  geese  flying  upward,  and  the  great 
pair  of  flower  screens  on  gold  which  once  formed  the  treasure  of 
the  collection  of  Yanagisawa  Keija,  the  famous  artist  daimio  of 
Kazusa,  near  Nara.  The  colour  is  here  applied  in  impasto  over 
the  gold  ground,  and  is  thus  difi'erent  from  the  majority  of  his  flower 
screens  where  the  colour  has  been  used  in  semi-transparent  washes, 
allowing  the  gold  to  show  through.  Mr.  Freer  has  several  screens 
of  the  latter  kind.  But  in  the  Keija  screens  of  the  FenoUosa  collection 
the  firm  drawing  of  the  leaves  and  flowers  in  solid  colour  without 
line  shows  us  one  of  the  most  rich  examples  of  nature  study  in  the 
world.  Even  the  most  minute  plants  have  lavished  upon  them  a 
(  wealth  of  loving  care  which  we  ordinarily  reserve  for  our  portraits. 
The  wealth  of  colour  in  the  great  deep  crimson  and  scarlet  double 
poppies  is  indescribable.  Of  Sotatsu's  later  manner  we  must  say  that 
his  composition  gets  slightly  monotonous.  Free  as  it  is  it  consists 
of  too  many  leaves  drawn  all  in  one  free  way.  One  of  the  most 
beautiful  passages  in  Mr.  Freer's  gold  screens  is  a  small  bush  of 
pink  fuyo  flowers.  But  the  finest  of  all  his  flower  screens  is  the 
large  four-panelled  flower  piece  painted  on  dull  gold,  in  which  a  great 
branch  of  mimosa  in  blossom  overhangs  a  row  of  garden  flowers  in 
set  clumps.  Here  the  light  branches  of  the  pale  malachite  mimosa 
leaves  sway  in  the  breeze  like  light  feathers,  fringing  daintily  the 
very  substance  of  the  air.  No  lines  of  greater  buoyancy  can  be 
conceived.  Of  the  flowers  below,  the  passage  of  roses  with  iris  and 
hollyhocks,  and  that  of  pale  blue  hydrangea  are  most  beautiful.  This 
screen  reaches  the  height  of  sweet  natural  impressionism  in  the 
decoration    of  the    Korin    school. 

Another  screen  owned  by  Mr.  Freer  is  noticeable  for  its  great 
garden  landscape  impression  in  golds  and  silvers,  among  which  walk 
Japanese  Court  ladies  in  ancient  Fujiwara  costume.  These  have  been 
enlarged  to  mural  size.  The  robes  and  veils  of  the  ladies 
are  painted  in  opaque  passages  (pottery  glazes  as  it  were) 
of     greys,     creams    and    silvers.        The     head    of     one    fine     figure     is 


Two  Geese  Flying. 
By  Sotatiu. 


MODERN    ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN   JAPAN     137 

wearing;  a  wide  garden  sun-hat.  The  flesh  tints  are  soft  and  very 
beautiful.  The  large  cherry  pattern  of  the  dress  is  in  tones  ot 
silver.  This  figure  seems  indeed  as  direct  and  full  of  poetic  feeling 
as    a    Nobuzane. 

In  Sotatsu's  latest  manner  is  the  pair  of  screens  showing  gourd 
vines,  fuyo  bushes  and  chrysanthemum  clumps,  done  in  golden 
browns  in  free  wash,  sold  in  Mr.  Bing's  private  collection  this 
spring  (1906).  The  paper  ground  was  sprinkled  with  gold,  like 
nashiji  lacquer.  These  screens  were  lent  for  exhibition  in  Boston  in 
1893.  Of  Sotatsu's  finest  flowers  on  kakemono  Mr.  Freer's  scarlet 
and  white  poppies,  built  up  into  a  splendidly  pyramidal  composition, 
like  a  fountain  playing,  is  one  of  the  finest.  This  comes  nearest 
to  a  Korin  and  the  strong  play  of  colour  thrown  in  wet  upon  the 
leaves  of  another  colour,  as  of  gold  made  to  soak  into  green,  or 
yellow    into    brown. 

The  great  Korin,  the  third  of  the  four  chiefs  of  the  school, 
and  from  whom  its  generally-accepted  name  is  derived,  was  in  a 
sense  the  official  successor  of  Koyetsu,  especially  as  a  lacqucrer. 
But  as  a  painter  he  is  only  a  little  inferior  in  that  his  line  systems 
are  not  quite  so  stupendous  and  original.  In  his  more  formal  style 
he  is  more  rounded  and  Tosa-ish  than  anybody.  But  he  can  do 
flowers  and  grasses  with  great  firmness  and  naturalness  over  gold, 
and  much  as  in  the  Kizen  Sotatsu  screen.  Fine  examples  of  his 
pines,  hollyhocks  and  hagi  are  upon  Mrs.  Gardner's  screens  in 
Boston.  Mr.  Freer  has  a  pair  of  screens,  gold  clouded,  upon  which 
Korin  has  painted  nothing  but  free  clumps  of  chrysanthemums  in 
relief.  A  blue  river  (Korin  convention  derived  from  Tosa)  winds 
among  the  spotted  gold  heads.  The  leaf  masses  are  enormously  free 
in  their  brown,  gold  and  green.  Another  two-panel  screen  of  Mr. 
Freer's  upon  paper  shows  a  rich  line  design  ot  rocks,  chrysan- 
themums and  fuyo  bushes,  the  top  being  brightened  with  blood-red 
spots    of  maple    leaves. 

In  Japan  great  Korin  screens  are  many,  but  among  the  finest 
are  the  great  iris  screens  on  gold,  shown  in  1882  by  the  Nishi 
Honganji  temple  at  the  first  loan  exhibition  of  the  art  club.  Count 
Inouye  has  his  whole  library  decorated  in  a  continuous  design 
of  fine  coloured  flowers  by  Korin.  To  get  a  conception  of  the 
wealth     and     complexity     of     Korin     design     we     must     refer     to     the 


138     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

Japanese  printed  transcripts  from  his  pictorial  designs  issued  by  Hoitsu 
about  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  greatest  piece  by 
Korin  in  Boston,  and  one  of  the  finest  in  the  world,  is  the  great 
six-panel  wave  screen,  bought  by  me  in  1880  from  a  dispersed 
daimio  collection.  This  has  curved  rocks  in  copper  reds  and  stone 
blues  and  greens  arising  out  of  a  boiling  sea  of  gold  and  cream.  The 
foam  is  done  in  leaping  masses  of  solid  white.  The  body  of  the 
waves  gets  a  "winy"  tone  like  Homer's  seas,  from  hnes  of  gold  and 
grey  crossing  the  warm  yellow  paper.  Great  bands  of  solid  gold  mist 
play  in  from  the  left.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest  pieces  of  impressionism 
in  the  whole  school. 

Of  Korin  as  a  lacquerer,  pieces  are  to  be  found  in  all  the 
world's  notable  collections.  They  are  frequently  inlaid  in  pearl  and 
lead,  like  the  old  Kamakura  pieces,  but  with  a  more  realistic  design. 
The  box  decorated  in  this  manner  with  a  daimio  on  horseback  gives 
also  a  typical  impression  of  Korin's  manner  in  figures.  A  pottery 
box   done    in    monochrome    landscape    over    cream    is    Mr.    Freer's. 

The  fourth  of  the  great  men  is  Korin's  younger  brother,  Kenzan, 
who  is  known  to  collectors  chiefly  as  a  designer  of  freely-decorated 
pottery.  But  he  is  also  a  great  painter,  as  witnessed  by  his  splendid 
poppies  on  a  kakemono  in  Boston,  and  by  his  snow-covered  pine  branch 
of  Mr.  Freer's.  His  style  is  generally  the  loosest  and  most  spotty 
in  the  Kano  manner.  A  fine  pottery  square  box  decorated  with  pines 
is  shown  on  the  plate  facing  page  114,  and  three  pieces  in  coloured 
glaze,  owned  in  Japan,  of  poppies  and  snow  on  pines.  Kenzan  is 
wonderfully  varied  and  original  in  his  treatment  of  small,  sometimes 
almost  microscopic,  pottery  pieces,  always  most  charmingly  adapted  to 
material  and  use,  and  full  of  bits  of  nature  fancy ;  but  he  is  never 
as  grandly  constructive  as  Koyetsu,  or  even  as  Korin.     He  lived  to  1743. 

These  four  men  must  have  had  many  pupils  whose  names  are 
mostly  lost.  A  third  brother  of  Korin  and  Kenzan,  Kuchusai,  was 
a  good  painter,  potter  and  lacquerer.  Weaker  corn  screens  in  the 
Koyetsu  manner  I  have  often  seen  in  the  sales  in  Japan.  At  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  a  priest  named  Hoitsu  tried  to  revive  the 
Korin  school,  which  had  almost  become  extinguished.  His  work  is 
more  formal  and  rather  Kano-ized. 

If  now  we  review  the  aristocratic  schools  as  a  whole,  we  see  that 
only  two  rise  to  any   special  greatness,  the  Kano  and  the  Korin.     Both 


Two  Panel  Screen  of  Chrysanthemims. 
By  Korin. 


Study  of  Wild  Pinks  (detail). 
By  Sotatsu. 


o  o 
V)  c 


MODERN   ARISTOCRATIC    ART    IN  JAPAN     139 

are  mural  in  scale,  but  also  adapted  to  tea-rooms,  and  to  the  decoration 
of  all  kinds  of  rich  utensils  used  by  the  daimios  and  samurai.  Metal 
work  and  embroidery  specially  fall  to  the  Kano,  lacquer  and  pottery 
to  the   Korin.     Kano,   however,    influences   all   industries. 

Of  both  schools  the  great  period  comes  almost  simultaneously. 
Both  are  ofl^shoots  from  the  Kano-Yeitoku  school  of  Hideyoshi,  the 
Kano  through  modifying  the  ink  style  of  Yeitoku,  the  Korin  by 
modifying  the  colour  style.  Of  the  several  generations  in  time,  we 
can  say  that  Tanyu  and  Koyetsu,  the  creators  and  greatest  geniuses, 
are  nearly  contemporary,  and  reach  their  zenith  about  1660.  Korin 
is  to  Koyetsu  quite  as  Tsunenobu  to  Tanyu,  and  contemporary  with 
Tsunenobu,  both  reaching  their  height  about  1700.  Lastly  Kenzan 
in  his  old  age  (most  of  his  work  in  collections  is  late)  is  to  Korin 
like  Chikanobu  to  Tsunenobu — that  is,  the  two  contemporaries  are 
working  in  1730.  Of  both  schools  as  a  whole,  the  periods  from 
1640  to  1700  can  be  considered  those  of  the  great  strength  of  both 
schools.  Later  aristocratic  work  is  eclectic  and  feeble,  but  the  Kano 
work  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  most  valuable  for  its  critical  know- 
ledge and  its  copies  of  old  Chinese. 

Great  as  is  this  art,  the  importance  of  it  to  the  whole  Tokugawa 
period  is  not  so  great  as  the  plebeian  art  which  we  have  now  to 
study  ;  though  individually  Koyetsu,  and  perhaps  Tanyu,  overtop  Okio 
and  Kiyonaga  in  the  quality  of  their  general  geniuses. 


VOL.  II. 


Chapter     XV. 
MODERN     CHINESE     ART. 

The     Tsing    or    Manchu    Dynasties. 

IF  I  were  to  follow  strictly  the  standard  of  aesthetic  value,  which  I 
have  for  the  most  part  set  up  for  myself  in  this  brief  account  of 
brilliant  epochs,  I  should  probably  consider  modern  Chinese  art  to 
lie  below  the  level  of  mention,  as  I  have  considered  so  many  of  the 
minor  individuahties  in  preceding  periods  to  lie.  The  whole  picture 
should  be  consistent,  like  a  map  of  some  one  geologic  age  in  the 
islands  of  a  sinking  continent.  A  full  history  would  trace  the  roots 
of  the  mountain  chains  in  what  were  once  valleys,  now  deep  sea 
troughs.  But  if  in  art  we  were  studying  only  the  regions  of 
elevation,  they  would  be  grouped  in  time  quite  as  Polynesian  archi- 
pelagoes upon  waters  of  the  South  Pacific.  Finally  an  essay  upon 
supreme  geniuses  would  appear  like  a  chart  of  active  volcanoes, 
spotted  in  red  about  an  ocean.  It  all  depends  upon  the  base  level 
one    assumes. 

Having  in  this  book  deliberately  chosen  very  high-grade  work  for 
my  subject,  I  can  defend  my  determination  to  touch  upon  the  art 
of  the  Tsing  dynasty,  partly  upon  the  really  great  value  of  some 
of  its  decorated  industries,  such  as  porcelains,  but  chiefly  on  account  of 
keeping  in  view  certain  chains  of  causation,  continuous  with  forces 
already  noticed  in  Chinese  history.  The  fall  of  modern  Chinese  culture 
is  in  some  sense  an  organic  part  of  the  history  of  its  rise.  More- 
over the  thought  is  of  special  importance  when  we  come  to  consider 
in  the  next  chapter  the  whole  bearing  of  modern  plebeian  art  in 
Japan  toward  contemporary  Chinese.  It  will  be  perhaps  equally  true 
that  some  of  my  late  Japanese  phases  also  should  properly  fall  below 
the  level  of  mention.  It  is  mostly  true  that  the  concentration  of 
interest    in    any    design    falls    away    toward    the    edges. 


•? 
l^^-^ 


m 


:«*€     «>• 


Landscape  with  Horses.     By  Buson 


^ 


MoDERX   Rice-paper 
Trivialities. 


MODERN    CHINESE   ART  141 

The  decay  of  modern  Chinese  art,  already  foreshadowed  by  the 
middle  of  the  Ming  dynasty,  is  most  conspicuous  in  pictorial 
art — in  all  forms  of  art,  in  fact,  that  involve  high  imagination. 
In  early  Chinese  and  Japanese  art  the  industrial  patterns  were  offshoots 
from  the  central  art  of  sculpture.  In  both  arts  after  the  eighth 
century,  design  is  chiefly  conditioned  by  causes  that  affect  its  parent, 
painting.  But  in  recent  centuries  in  China,  and  equally  for  certain 
wide-spaced  phases  of  modern  art  in  Japan,  we  can  say  that  for  the 
first  time  design  becomes  separated,  in  part,  from  high  creative  motive, 
depending  rather  upon  prettiness  than  upon  large  constructive  line  relations. 
This  is  not  true  of  the  Korin  school,  as  we  have  just  seen  in  the 
preceding  chapter.  But  it  is  true  conspicuously  of  Tokugawa  architec- 
ture, especially  that  of  temples  ;  and  it  is  still  more  universally  true 
of  the  great  bulk  of  modern  Chinese  bric-a-brac.  It  is  this  work, 
however,  which  foreign  collectors  have  hitherto  mostly  acquired,  and 
so  their  standard  of  Chinese  design  starts  far  too  low.  In  much  the 
same  way,  as  I  have  already  shown,  European  scholars  of  any  subject 
in  China  have  come  to  adopt  the  low  intellectual  key  of  the  modern 
mandarins,  and  are  quite  ignorant  of  the  magnificent  imagination  and 
power  of  early  centuries.  It  is  to  vindicate  those  higher  levels  that  we 
must  look  up  from  the  lower,  even  if  they  sink  below  our  proper  horizon. 

Professor  Hirth  has  to  some  extent  protested  against  this  view  of 
a  great  decay  in  modern  Chinese  pictorial  art,  which  Professor  Giles 
had  asserted.  No  doubt  there  have  been  great  hosts  of  modern  Tsins 
painters  with  elaborate  school  traditions  and  bibliographies  over  minute, 
quite  as  to-day  we  naturally  know  so  much  more  about  the  life  of  any 
popular  modern  playwright  than  we  do  of  Shakespeare.  But  if  wc 
adopt  any  high  universal  test  of  aesthetic  attainment,  great  spacing, 
great  characterization,  and  the  structural  use  of  great  colour  ;  we  shall 
find  modern  Chinese  painting  to  have  fallen  almost  to  the  childish  point 
of  awkward  weakness  and  ineffective  symbolism,  the  same  point  to  which 
European  Christian  art  fell  to  in  the  poorest  of  Byzantine  mosaics.  Art 
begins  in  hopeful  childishness,  and  falls  back  to  hopeless  childishness. 
The  only  hope  for  the  hopeless  is  to  perceive  itself  to  be  hopeless. 
We  may  then  come  to  discard  it  and  begin  anew.  The  moment  we 
notice,  coddle,  and  over-praise  it,  we  do  injury  to  all  past  and  possible 
future  creation.  Let  us  not  really  lower  our  critical  standards  to  suit 
a  degenerate  present. 

K  2 


142     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

The  real  break  between  China's  past  and  present  came  with  the 
sixteenth  century  of  the  Ming  dynasty,  after  the  transmission  of  its 
best  traditions  to  Ashikagan  Japan,  and  when  the  turmoil  of  local 
strife  in  Japan  was  paralleled  by  approaching  strife  between  a  weakened 
empire  and  the  Tartars  of  the  North.  China  and  Japan  had  really  done 
with  each  other. 

What  had  happened  in  China  was  the  complete  loss  of  the  early 
attempt  in  Ming  to  revive  the  anti-Confucian  or  Southern  genius,  a 
genius  which  had  seen  its  illumination  at  Hangchow  and  its  anti- 
thesis in  Yuen.  There  was  not  enough  ideality  left  in  Ming  to 
stand  the  strain.  As  early  as  1421  the  Ming  renaissance  was  doomed 
to  failure  when  it  was  decided  to  remove  the  capital  from  the 
Yangtse  valley  to  the  far  North-east  Tartar  capital  of  Peking.  Peking 
had  never  been  the  capital  of  China  before  the  days  of  the  Kins  and 
Mongols.  It  had  no  great  art  monuments  or  collections  of  ancient 
work.  Its  people  were  largely  of  Tartar  blood.  Its  traditions  of 
brief  Mongol  supremacy  were  all  of  a  materialistic  splendour  that 
ignored  idealism. 

For  all  these  reasons  Peking  offered  a  far  more  effective  field  for 
the  conservative  Confucian  literati  to  work  in.  Put  on  the  defensive 
by  Northern  Sung,  reformed  against  their  will  by  Southern  Sung, 
they  had  leaped  unchecked  to  the  head  of  the  Tartar  horses,  and 
guided  the  course  of  their  alien  masters  in  statecraft.  It  is  strange 
that  both  Mongols  and  Manchus  should  have  lent  ready  ear  to  the 
repressive  propaganda  of  both  Confucian  atheists  and  Christian  scholars, 
but  should  have  thrown  down  between  them  all  that  poetic  Taoist 
and  Buddhist  idealism  which  has  been  the  core  of  Chinese  imaginative 
life.  Of  the  more  honest  of  those  Confucians,  it  was  no  doubt  a 
definite  desire  to  make  China  into  a  moral  machine,  where  every  rite, 
ceremony,  industry,  and  even  thought  should  be  conducted  along  pre- 
established  formulas.  Their  ideal  is  uniformity  ;  their  standard  is  not 
insight  but  authority  ;  their  conception  of  literature  is  bounded  by  the 
dictionary  ;  what  they  hate  most  is  any  manifestation  of  human  freedom. 
Free  thought  with  them  was  as  horrid  an  anathema  as  with  an  eighteenth 
century  New  England  Calvinist.  Of  the  less  honest,  the  motive  was 
doubtless  to  further  that  method  of  absorbing  all  local  official  patronage 
by  which  tax  lists  became  legitimate  prey  for  extortion.  The  modern 
Confucian   government  of   China   is   a   government  of  corrupt  Puritans  ; 


MODERN    CHINESE   ART  143 

a  ring  more  closely  monopolistic  than  Tammany's,  and  worse  th;in 
Tammany's  because  of  its  moral  hypocrisy.  Even  Wu  Ting  Fang  we 
see  to-day  giving  up  his  efforts  for  reform  in  despair.  The  Mandarin 
class  is  China's  Old  Man  of  the  Sea,  a  parasitic  growth  that  chokes 
the  life  out  of  any  effort  at  readaptation.  It  was  this  hideous,  cold, 
reptilian  monster,  hidden  beneath  the  formalism  of  his  Confucian 
contemporaries,  that  Oanseki  divined  in  1060,  and  fought  as  if  he 
foresaw  the  death  crunch  that  it  would  eventually  give  to  the  Chinese 
soul.  The  whole  Sung  dynasty  was  a  Chinese  passionate  protest  against 
its  crystallizing  tyranny  ;  the  whole  Sung  dynasty  has  been  contemned 
and  misrepresented  by  the  histories  of  the  enemy's  triumphant  ranks. 
To-day  we  have  a  China  boasting  of  the  cold  poison  that  has  killed  it,  as 
the  very  sign  of  its  genius  ;  the  stillness  of  its  death  as  its  divine 
changelessness.  Truly  when  human  nature  becomes  a  slave  it  may  last 
for  ever.  But  even  the  solid  strata  of  the  mountains  bend  and  crush  and 
shake  down  cities.  So  China  itself  is  now  bending,  so  may  her  very 
dynasty  be  crushed  ;  so  shall  the  ancient  fallacies  of  Confucian  impudence 
and  imbecility  be  shaken  down.  And  then  it  will  be  recognized  by 
the  world  that  the   core  of  the  new  China  lay  in  Sung  ! 

But  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  modern  art  ?  Everything.  The 
Tammany  Mandarins  hated  every  sign  of  hfe  involved  in  early  Ming 
success.  Hangchow  art  was  a  red  flag  to  them.  It  must  be  part 
of  their  policy  to  decry  it  and  all  its  Kakeis  and  Mokkeis  on  the 
one  hand,  and  to  put  in  some  kind  of  substitute  for  it  on  the 
other.  It  was  the  last  half  of  Ming,  in  short,  that  tried  to  develop 
a  superseding  school  of  Confucian  art,  utterly  subversive  of  all 
Hangchow  ;  and  it  succeeded.  It  is  this  Confucian  art,  practically 
conterminous  with  what  we  call  "bunjinga"  and  mixed  with  a 
barbarous  Tartar  and  Thibetan  Buddhism  on  the  one  hand,  and  with 
a  Tartar  realism  and  a  Tartar  love  of  crude  ornament  on  the  other, 
that    has    imposed    itself   upon    the    whole    Manchu    dynasty. 

What  should  be  taken  as  the  distinctive  art  of  Ming  Confucian 
scholars,  the  new  lights  of  the  empire  ?  Something  with  tradition 
of  course.  They  could  not  quite  go  back  to  Confucius  in  art,  for 
there  was  not  any  art  in  his  day.  They  looked  back  first  to  the 
Yuen  dynasty  that  preceded  Ming,  and  there  they  found  a  scholarly 
style  that  had  stood  out  against  both  materialism  and  Sung-ism,  the 
free,     blurry     landscape     art    of   the    four    great    men    who     revelled     in 


144     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

shapeless  but  brilliant  masses  of  cloud  and  mist.  This  style,  indeed, 
threw  over  all  accurate  knowledge  of  form,  of  varied  effect  in  nature, 
to  record  only  one  style  of  feeling.  That,  however,  was  enough, 
for  simplicity  and  uniformity  were  dear  to  scholars.  Certain  plati- 
tudes about  old  nature  poetry  were  enough  to  quote.  In  such  art 
and  literature  it  was  as  if  because  Shelley  wrote  a  poem  on  a 
cloud,  all  future  poets  worthy  of  the  name  should  do  the  same 
thing.  This  fine  but  narrow  style  of  the  Yuen  poet  -  painters 
among  the  Confucians  had  really  been  developed  from  germs  sown 
by  the  scholar  Beigensho  and  his  son  in  Northern  Sung.  Indeed 
the  whole  hated  work  of  Sung  reform  was  made  by  the  Ming 
patriots  to  centre  about  the  "traitor"  Oanseki  the  friendly  foe  of 
Beigensho,  Toba,  Bunyoka,  and  all  the  strictly  Confucian  scholars  of 
Kaifong  in  the  eleventh  century  ;  and  therefore  they  wished  to  erect 
into  a  kind  of  saint-ship  a  solemn  canon,  the  thoughts  and  art  of 
the    men    who    had    opposed    Oanseki  (Wang  An-shih). 

There  were  many  writers  and  artists  towards  the  end  of  Ming 
to  try  to  formulate  this  theory,  and  to  show  that  the  only  really 
"  true  "  art  of  China  was  the  spotty  Yuen  school.  New  histories, 
new  canons,  new  schools  of  criticism  now  arose,  having  about  as 
much  relation  to  truth  as  would  a  passionately  defended  French  thesis  that 
St.  Luke  was  an  impressionist.  A  leading  man  among  the  writers  is 
Tokisho  (Tung  Ch'i-ch*ang),  whose  ideas  have  vitiated  all  Chinese  criticism 
since  his  day.  He  was  not  content  to  carry  his  derivation  of  the 
style  as  far  as  Beigensho  in  Sung  ;  he  undertook,  against  all  evidence, 
to  push  it  back  to  Tang,  and  father  it  upon  poor  Omakitsu  (Wang 
Wei),  because,  in  sooth,  Omakitsu  had  been  the  first  of  the  great 
landscape  painter-poets.  He  then  had  to  give  a  name  for  this 
universal  Chinese  school,  and  chose  the  term  "  Southern."  This  was 
probably  done  because  the  real  source  of  landscape  poetry  and  art 
had  been  in  the  South.  The  tradition  reached  back  to  Toemmei  in 
the  fifth  century.  It  was  a  bold  bid  to  sweep  the  whole  nature 
movement  in  China  into  their — the  Confucian — ranks.  In  contra- 
distinction to  this  alleged  orthodox  movement  Tokisho  set  up  a 
"  Northern "  school,  which  was  supposed  to  be  the  tradition  of  the 
Tartar  Buddhists  of  the  Northern  provinces,  and  of  the  heretical 
academy  of  Kiso  Kotei  in  Northern  Sung.  By  this  chain  of  reasoning, 
Mokkei,     Kakei,     and     Bayen,     though     dwellers    in    the    South,  were 


MODERN    CHINESE   ART  145 

pioneers  of  the  "  Northern  "  school,  because  derived  from  Kiso's 
academic  formulae.  These  men  had  no  "  principle,"  no  "  soul,"  they 
were  mere  "  hangers-on  of  Imperial  favour."  The  great  soulful 
independent  art  was  the  non-academic,  nay,  the  lamentably  "amateurish" 
work  of  the  opposition  scholars.  For  it  is  most  un-Confucian  to  be  a 
professional  ;  you  should  toss  these  things,  these  paintings  and  poems, 
off  for  mere  amusement.  Lastly,  Tokisho  either  invented  or  re- 
adapted  for  use  in  his  new  technical  sense,  a  special  term  for  this 
kind  of  art  which  characterized  its  Confucian  holiness,  "  bunjinga  " — 
"  literary  men's  painting."  Expanded,  this  means  such  paintings  as 
late  Ming  Confucian  scholars  should  approve,  namely,  such  as  was 
done  by  literary  men  in  Sung  and  Tang,  and  could  be  dashed  off 
without    great    effort    by    moderns. 

The  historical  error  in  all  this  modern  Chinese  theory  of  art 
was  stupendous.  It  tried  to  win  for  itself  in  the  name  "  Southern," 
the  whole  prestige  of  Liang  and  Hangchow,  which  were  the  central 
seats  of  Zen  Buddhist,  its  bitterest  enemy.  The  whole  great  land- 
scape school  of  China,  really  southern  derived,  but  whether  produced 
North  or  South — by  Omakitsu  (Wang  Wei),  Godoshi  (Wu  Tao-tzu), 
Risei  (Li  Ch'eng),  Kakki  (Kuo  Hsi),  or  Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei) — was 
the  exact  opposite  to  all  that  Tokisho  loved,  was  really  what  he 
despised  as  the  "  Northern "  school.  Even  the  Kiso  landscape  of 
Northern  Sung  was  what  it  was  because  it  had  sprung  from  the  South. 
Thus  in  Tokisho's  theory  what  he  called  "North"  was  essentially 
"South";  what  he  called  "South"  was  really  derived  from  Northern 
Kaifong   Confucianists. 

Moreover,  the  distribution  which  he  alleges  down  through  the 
ages  did  not  exist.  Beigensho  indeed  established  a  personal  style, 
but  it  was  not  shared  by  his  Confucian  contemporaries,  nor  made 
the  basis  of  a  school  method  before  Yuen.  There  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  his  Sung  fellows,  such  as  Toba  and  Bunyoka  and 
Sanboku,  thought  of  themselves  as  doing  anything  essentially  opposed 
in  their  landscapes  to  Kakki  and  Ririomin,  their  other  group  of 
friends.  The  only  difference  was  that  they  were  amateurish,  and 
very  much  limited  in  their  subjects.  But  Toba's  bamboo,  for 
instance,  is  in  no  essential  different  from  Mokkei's,  Bayen's,  and  the 
whole  great  Southern  Sung  school.  Finally,  the  very  phrase  bunjinga— 
"  literary    men's    painting  " — sufficiently    characterizes    and    condemns   it. 


146     EPOCHS   OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

It  was  rather  a  matter  of  thought  and  evolution  than  of  visual 
imagination.  It  was  as  if  we  should  write  "  horse "  under  a  child's 
drawing  of  a  horse.  To  the  merely  literary  mind,  pictures  are 
"signs"  of  ideas — that  is,  another  kind  of  "word."  Of  all  that  is 
involved  in  original  line  creation  they  know  and  care  nothing.  All 
that  to  them,  as  in  some  of  our  modern  lectures  on  art,  is  "mere 
technique." 

But  how  about  the  evidence  of  the  real  old  masters,  which  it 
would  seem  ought  to  have  refuted  this  precious  theory  ?  Be 
patient,  the  evidence  could  be  manufactured  !  The  old  were  largely 
known  by  copies  of  copies  ;  it  was  only  necessary  to  re-copy  them 
once  or  twice  more  into  the  "bunjinga"  style,  to  prove  that  the 
old  masters  were  bunjin  painters  themselves.  I  do  not  mean  to 
assert  that  in  all  or  even  in  most  cases  this  process  was  deliberately 
fraudulent.  The  account  of  the  honest  artists  of  their  process,  com- 
bined with  a  view  of  what  they  actually  did,  makes  clear 
the  whole  matter.  They  openly  claim  it  as  an  advantage  in  their 
way  of  copying  that  they  do  not  try  to  follow  the  exact  lines  and 
touch  of  the  originals,  but  that  they  "translate"  it  into  the  creative 
style  of  themselves,  just  as  a  poet  has  to  use  his  own  alien  genius 
in  translating  a  foreign  masterpiece.  In  other  words,  they  saw  in 
the  original  only  those  features  which  seemed  more  or  less  adapted 
to  their  own  manner  of  work.  Now  their  manner  of  work  was 
"bunjinga,"  formless  and  woolly.  Therefore,  in  several  re-copyings, 
all  the  stiff,  hard,  fine  drawing  of  the  originals  would  vanish,  and 
nothing  be  left  but  an  extravagant  exaggeration  of  their  woolliest 
features.  This  is  the  reason  why,  in  the  large  number  of  Tsing 
alleged  copies  of  old  masters — certified  by  the  handwriting  to  be 
copies  of  copies — we  find  little  but  the  most  childish  kind  of 
modern  work,  a  trivial  unimaginative  pen-play  which  has  absolutely 
no  likeness  to  any  of  the  old  great  masters  of  preceding  dynasties, 
except  of  a  few  Yuen.  It  is  exactly  as  if  the  manufacturers  of 
Greek  altar-pieces  at  Mount  Athos,  not  content  with  their  hieratic 
tradition,  were  to  assert  that  their  little  gold  line  dolls  were  the 
only    authentic    copies   of  lost    masterpieces    by  Apelles   and    Parrhasius. 

The  enormous  evil  of  this  impudent  "bunjinga"  hypothesis', 
that  soon  stamped  itself  as  orthodox  in  the  belief  of  all  Chinese 
scholars,    was    a   degeneration    of  art     so    rapid    that    by     the     end    of 


Example  of  a  "  Blxjixga  "  Landscape. 


MODERN    CHINESE    ART  147 

Ming  hardly  a  respectable  piece  of  work  could  be  done  except  in 
a  weak  sort  of  pretty  flower  painting.  Figures  had  become  dolls  ; 
round-shouldered,  backboneless,  with  empty  idiotic  faces,  where  pro- 
portion, grand  spacing,  and  intricate  line  feeling  were  no  longer 
even  sought  for.  It  is  like  the  fall  from  Wagnerian  opera  to  "rag- 
time." To  one  who  likes  "  rag-time,"  classical  music  is  a  bore,  quietly 
ignored.  So  to  a  bunjinga  lover  of  late  Ming,  or  of  Tsing,  all  the 
great  qualities  that  have  made  Chinese  art  are  either  ignored  or  travestied. 
It  becomes  an  absolute  dulling  of  the  senses,  and  this  should  be  clear 
to  any  European  artist  who  compares  side  by  side  what  they  boast  is  their 
greatest  Tsing  masterpieces  with  even  the  poorest  of  the  original  Sung. 
It  becomes  dotage,  second  childhood.  For  though  the  Yuen  prede- 
cessors were  only  great  men  in  their  limited  line,  and  would  be  recognized 
as  such  by  the  artists  of  all  nations,  their  would-be  Tsing  followers, 
having  hopelessly  lost  the  eye  for  proportion,  could  not  see  even  in 
Yuen  masterpieces  that  which  made  them  great.  To  the  followers  of 
Tokisho  it  was  the  absurd  piling  of  shapeless  peak  on  peak — a  kind  of 
Chinese  Pelion  on  Ossa — that  was  essential,  not  the  magnificent  notan 
of  the  mists  that  enshrouded  them  ;  the  fact  that  each  dead  tree  had 
its  broken  branches  done  with  a  little  manufactured  spiky  touch  that 
the  same  artists  and  a  hundred  enrolled  followers  would  apply  to  all 
dead  trees,  rather  than  that  the  lines  of  Yuen  trees  gave  a  sort  of 
accent  to  the  cloudiness  that  redeemed  it  for  purposes  of  texture.  In 
short,  notan  for  modern  Chinese,  as  well  as  real  form,  ceased  to  exist. 
Notan,  the  actual  spotting  of  the  dark  and  light  upon  their  pictures, 
ceased  to  have  any  relation  to  the  beauties  of  dark  and  light  in  nature, 
and  became  admired  in  proportion  as  it  looked  like  the  repeated  varia- 
tions in  the  spotting  of  ink  upon  a  written  manuscript.  In  fact  it  can 
be  said  that  the  natural  effect  of  the  bunjinga  theory  is  to  obliterate 
the  distinction  between  painting  and  handwriting.  The  drawn  horse 
and  the  word  "  horse  "  may  be  equally  unpictorial. 

But  it  was  not  only  art  history  and  art  production  that  were  ruined  by 
fifty  years  of  this  Confucian  triumph  ;  art  criticism  took  such  a  tumble 
that  the  comments  of  those  who  wrote,  after  1550  at  least,  have  no 
more  relation  to  the  thoughts  of  the  great  early  critics  than  the  writings 
of  modern  anarchists  have  to  Aristotle.  And  yet  in  the  great  Tsing 
compilations  from  all  available  Chinese  literature  upon  art  the  words 
of  recent    critics  are    quoted    side    by    side    with    those    of  ancient,    in 


148     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

complete  unconsciousness  of  the  infinite  intellectual  and  imaginative 
gap  that  divides  them.  In  this  way  European  scholars  are  utterly 
deceived  who  quote  a  modern  bunjinga  critic  as  equally  good  "evidence  " 
about  art  with  an  ancient.  The  whole  mass  of  what  at  least  bunjinga 
critics  have  to  say  is  mostly  "  rot." 

And  the  very  drivelling  of  this  modern  criticism  is  even  quoted 
sometimes  as  evidence  of  perspicuity,  as  for  instance  the  modern  Chinese 
illustrated  books  which  pretend  to  say  that  Kakki's  style  of  tree  touch 
was  such  an  one,  Risei's  this,  and  Randen's  that.  Some  silly  little 
childish  scratching  is  produced  for  the  alleged  styles,  the  difference  in 
which  concerns  some  little  trick  of  curve  or  the  number  of  "prickles" 
on  each  side  of  the  central  stem.  Not  one  of  them  has  much  resem- 
blance to  the  styles  of  the  really  artistic  originals.  How  childish 
criticism  finally  becomes  in  these  modern  schools  is  seen  in  the  in- 
veterate categorizing  which  a  parrot-like  education  must  foster,  where, 
for  instance,  mountains  are  classified  as  having  one  tree  on  the  top, 
two  trees  on  the  right  slope,  three  trees  and  two  rocks  on  the  left, 
and  trees  with  five  long  branches  on  the  left  side,  with  three  short 
on  the  right,  and  so  on  ad  nauseam  through  the  whole  round  of 
mathematical  permutations.  When  thought  has  fallen  to  the  level 
of  mere  narrowing,  art  does  likewise,  and  the  final  pleasure  a  connois- 
seur takes  in  a  picture  is  the  mere  recognition  of  a  category  that  has 
some  artificial  flavour  of  old  association.  The  whole  paraphernalia  of 
this  school  of  modern  exposition  serves  only  the  most  unimaginative 
minds.  It  has  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  either  the  thought  or 
the    art    of  old    China. 

The  movement  of  this  school  of  bunjinga  over  China  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  was  like  a  flashing  fire  that  left 
a  waste  of  ashes  in  its  wake.  The  whole  great  universe  of  Chinese 
art  was  not  only  superseded,  but  obliterated.  In  the  intellectual  and 
aesthetic  fields  it  was  as  disastrous  as  the  movements  of  the  later  Tai- 
ping  armies  over  the  actual  provinces.  It  seems  at  first  hard  to 
believe  that  a  mental  revolution  so  absolute  could  take  place  in  a  great 
consolidated  people  ;  but  we  have  a  somewhat  parallel  European 
example  in  the  utter  transformation  of  Greek  art  feeling  in  the  schools 
of  Byzantium,  through  which,  though  great  original  statutes  still  existed 
to  refer  to,  the  paralysed  taste  of  the  day  prescribed  and  preferred  dead 
effigies  and  childish  dolls. 


MODERN    CHINESE   ART  149 

The  Tartar  Manchus  had  been  fighting  with  a  degenerate  Ming  for 
forty  years,  when  the  last  Emperor  of  the  old  line  was  defeated  in 
1660,  captured  and  sent  North  to  the  seats  of  his  captors.  In  the 
next  year  he  was  banished  to  Formosa.  In  1662,  Kanghi,  the  second 
Emperor  of  the  Manchu  line,  came  to  the  throne,  and  ruled  down  to 
1722,  a  notably  long  reign  of  sixty  years.  After  the  short  reign  or 
Yun  Ching,  Kienlung,  Kanghi's  grandson,  ruled  also  for  sixty  years, 
1736  to  1796.  These  two  long  reigns  of  these  two  wise  Tartars 
really  occupy  not  only  the  centre  but  most  of  the  bulk  of  the  Tsing 
dynasty.  Whatever  is  epochal,  whatever  is  vital  in  Manchu  civilization, 
comes  from  their  combined  reigns.  Modern  China  became  absolutely 
fixed  by  their  methods. 

On  the  accession  of  Kanghi  it  seemed  as  if  a  new  glorious  world 
might  be  dawning  for  China.  Elements  of  the  new  were  on  every 
hand.  Not  only  were  the  Manchus  a  fresh  race  with  a  strong,  if 
uncultivated,  intelligence  ;  but  the  power  of  the  Jesuits  from  Europe, 
already  laid  in  late  Ming,  grew  to  great  influence  under  this  first  long 
Manchu  reign.  Great  was  the  hope  of  the  Christians,  who  remembered 
the  friendliness  to  them  of  the  Mongol  predecessors  three  hundred  years 
before.  A  new  world  of  commercial  intercourse  was  springing  up  with 
Europe.  Macao  was  a  Chinese  port  of  the  Portuguese,  Canton  and 
Whampoa  were  freely  open  to  all  Europeans.  Kanghi  allowed  the 
Jesuit  missionaries  to  build  their  cathedral  near  the  palace  in  Peking, 
and  adopted  them  as  tutors  for  his  children.  What  a  tremendous 
contrast  with  Japan,  who  had  shut  herself  off  from  the  great  advanc- 
ing Christian  world,  and  was  striving  with  all  her  might  to  keep  out 
the  new  !  How  certain  it  seemed  that  while  Japan  in  her  persistent 
isolation  would  wither  to  weakness  and  decay,  China,  coming  into  lines 
of  world-culture,  would  soon  surpass  her  island  rival  !  And  yet,  look 
at  the  result  !  Japan  using  her  conservatism  to  foster  mental  and 
moral  strength  ;  China  using  her  world-freedom  to  rivet  her  own 
fetters  of  formalism  !     What  an  anti-climax  !     How  shall  we  explain  it  ? 

The  answer  given  here  can  only  be  outlined.  It  is  that  the  reign 
of  Kanghi,  which  started  out  most  hopefully  for  Christianity  and  for 
China,  ended  in  the  gloom  of  the  first  Christian  persecution.  This  was 
due  to  the  pigheadedness  of  the  Papal  Court  and  its  advisers,  who  were 
jealous  of  Jesuit  success.  The  Jesuits  had  politically  and  broadmindedly 
tried  to   identify  as   much  as  possible  of  what  was  vital  in   Chinese  life 


ISO     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

and  thought  with  Christianity.  Their  Franciscan  and  Dominican 
opponents  wished  to  down  all  Chinese  thought  and  rite  as  the  work  of 
the  devil.  On  the  side  of  Europe  it  was  the  problem  of  tolerance  or 
Intolerance.  But  we  will  not  here  attempt  to  go  into  this  old  well-worn 
controversy.  Enough  to  say  that  the  Jesuit  policy  of  tolerance  led  to 
the  rapid  conversion  of  many  Chinese  Court  nobles  and  their  families, 
and  even  the  Emperor  offered  on  certain  conditions  to  become  a 
Christian.  He  held  friendly  correspondence  with  Louis  XIV.  of  France. 
French  scholars  were  all  powerful  at  Kanghi's  Court.  Some  of  them, 
who  were  artists.  Introduced  European  oil  painting.  But  when  Papal 
intolerance  declared  that  a  Chinese,  in  order  to  be  a  Christian,  must 
virtually  renounce  all  his  institutions,  ancestor  worship,  Confucianism, 
the  reverence  for  the  Chinese  heaven,  etc.,  all  China,  even  that  most 
radical  part  of  it  most  friendly  to  the  Christians,  rose  in  revolt. 
Kanghl  solemnly  warned  Europe  of  the  colossal  mistake  It  was  about 
to  make.  But  idiotic  Europe  made  it,  and  effected  by  her  stupid 
intolerance  a  practical  exclusion  from  China  nearly  as  effective  and  with 
even  more  friction  than  that  which  Japan  had  decreed.  In  the  year 
1700  China  was  almost  becoming  a  part  of  Europe.  By  1720  the 
Emperor  Yung  Ching  had,  for  mere  self-preservation,  to  fulminate 
almost  cruel  edicts  against  all  Christians,  native  and  foreign.  The  great 
breach  then  made  by  Rome  has  widened  since  to  almost  antipodal  scale. 
The  opportunity  of  Western  civilization  to  incorporate  China  peacefully 
was  for  ever  lost. 

But  the  real  effect  on  China  was  more  far-reaching  than  this  negative 
statement.  What  remained  for  China  to  build  on  if  not  Christianity  ? 
What  was  the  issue  in  the  Chinese  world  when  Christianity  stood  on 
the  verge  of  success  .''  It  is  hardly  enough  to  say  that  it  was  Christ 
versus  Confucius  ;  it  was  the  whole  method  of  European  thought  verstis 
the  whole  method  of  Confucian  thought.  It  was  the  same  old  bigoted 
conservatism  which  had  fought  mystical  Buddhism  In  Tang,  idealistic 
Buddhism  in  Sung,  and  the  Hangchow  renaissance  in  Ming.  It  now 
had  a  new  antagonist,  that  was  all — a  new  kind  of  religious  idealism 
more  emotional  than  Zen,  a  new  scheme  of  administration  and  education 
more  radical  than  Oanseki's.  No  doubt  the  patriotism  of  these  Chinese 
was  genuine.  They  were  strong  enough  to  persuade  even  Kanghi,  the 
Manchu  friend  of  Europe,  that  "  Chinese  institutions "  must  not  be 
subverted.     To    China   the    problem    was    the    same    old  one,  with    the 


MODERN    CHINESE   ART  151 

disadvantage  of  having  the  factor  of  freedom  now  alien.  The  stupid 
ignorance  of  Europe,  which  ignored  the  enlightened  appeal  of  the 
Jesuits,  merely  joined  forces  with  the  Confucianists. 

The  reign  of  Kanghi  had  been  brilliant  in  many  other  ways.  It 
was  an  age  not  of  creators  but  of  book  scholars,  men  who  knew  words 
rather  than  thoughts.  Hence  its  splendid  compilations,  of  extant 
Chinese  letters  on  all  important  subjects  ;  its  monster  cyclopaedias,  its 
splendid  dictionaries.  In  all  this  work,  Kanghi,  the  Manchu,  was  more 
really  Chinese  than  Confucians  themselves  would  have  counselled.  His 
mind  was  untarnished  by  formalism.  He  tried  to  think  for  himself. 
He  honestly  wished  to  awake  Chinese  self-consciousness  at  the  same 
time  that  he  would  cautiously  introduce  European  reforms.  It  was 
the  best  anti-Confucian  policy  possible,  for  it  kept  the  scholars  so 
busy  on  their  endless  researches  and  compilations  that  they  had  little 
time  for  political  intrigues.  Doubtless  they  would  have  wished  to 
dominate  the  Court,  and  bind  the  Emperor  in  their  cobweb  net,  as 
they  had  done  the  alien  Emperor  of  Yuen.  Kanghi  knew  how  to 
steer  his  way  between  their  pitfalls  and  Confucian  dangers. 

But  after  Europe  had  made  its  disastrous  move  of  the  Papal  Bull 
of  1702;  after  Kanghi,  still  regretfully  friendly  to  the  Jesuits,  had  died; 
after  Yung  Ching  had  been  forced  to  raise  about  him  the  whole  army 
of  Chinese  conservatism  in  order  to  grapple  with  the  insidious  Christian 
influence  ;  the  Confucianists  found  themselves  suddenly  in  a  position 
of  influence  never  intended  by  the  wise  Kanghi.  China  had  to  fall 
back  upon  herself,  and  who  could  tell  the  wise  Kienlung  in  1736  that 
the  real  China  had  been  something  far  nearer  to  European  acuteness 
and  Christian  idealism  than  the  Confucians  alleged.  They  had  the 
game  in  their  hands.  They  had  only  to  enforce  the  most  narrow 
and  certain  of  their  formulas  in  order  to  inspire  the  patriots.  Thus 
the  whole  reign  of  Kienlung,  keen  scholar  as  he  was,  and  far  finer 
in  spirit  than  the  average  mandarin,  could  see  no  outlook  but  to  follow 
their  propaganda.  Therefore  the  age  of  Kienlung  is  not  like  Kanghi's, 
one  of  hope  and  experiment,  but  one  of  shrinking  into  the  shell,  and 
finally  confirming  the  tyranny  of  type  as  against  the  needs  of  readjust- 
ment. No  new  form  of  Buddhism  or  Taoism  was  conceivable.  Chinese 
inspiration  had  worn  itself  out.  Nothing  but  repetition  suggested 
itself.  Only  Europe  offered  a  clue,  and  Europe  had  tailed.  It  was 
the  final  triumph  of  the  Chinese  Bourbons. 


152  EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE    ART 

Since  Kienlung's  abdication  in  1796  the  History  of  China  has  become 
one  not  of  internal  development,  but  of  stubborn  and  bitter  opposition 
to  growing  European  inroads.  It  was  no  longer  exactly  the  Jesuit  problem, 
but  one  hardly  less  bigoted,  the  Protestant  missionary  problem,  and  one 
politically  more  dangerous  and  more  demoralizing,  the  European  commer- 
cial problem.  We  need  not  enumerate  the  English  treaties,  the  prohibition 
of  opium  in  1838,  the  enforcement  of  opium  upon  China  in  i860,  Hong- 
kong, the  encroachments  of  France,  Germany,  and  finally  of  Russia. 
Distracted  China  saw  herself  about  to  be  dismembered  at  the  end  of  the 
century.  She  fought  like  an  armadillo  in  a  corner.  The  wonderful  new 
fact  which  makes  her  emancipation  still  possible  is  the  rise  of  her  Japanese 
champion.  But  to-day  the  self-same  mandarins  who  have  throttled  China 
like  Li  Hung  Chang,  who  would  sell  his  country  for  $50,000,000,  and 
exploited  her  civil  service,  are  as  jealous  of  the  veritable  reforms  that  Japan 
will  introduce  as  they  were  afraid  of  Europe,  as  they  were  afraid  of  Oanseki. 

But  now  to  go  back  to  our  special  subject  of  art.  Chinese  art  of  Tsing 
divides  itself  into  three  sub-epochs  :  the  Kanghi  epoch  of  hope  and 
experiment ;  the  Kienlung  period  of  self-hardening  ;  the  nineteenth  century 
of  despair  and  loss. 

The  art  of  the  Kanghi  age  is  rather  a  compound  of  many  movements 
than  a  single  natural  impulse  ;  in  that  respect  paralleling  the  Japanese  art 
of  Tokugawa.  The  chief  of  these  movements  may  be  said  to  be  five. 
One  was  a  thin  stream  of  influence,  not  quite  choked  out,  from  the 
ancient  styles  of  Chinese  art  revived  in  early  Ming.  But  it  was  very 
narrow  in  subject.  Strong  individual  figure  painting  had  ceased  to  exist  ; 
landscape  had  been  monopolized  by  the  Confucians.  There  was  left  only 
the  prettiness  of  coloured  bird  and  flower  painting  (a  remote  flavour  of 
Joki  and  Chosho),  which  had  been  the  most  conspicuous  feature  in  early 
Ming  renaissance.  The  re-echoes  of  Rioki  and  Henkeisho,  stiffs  and 
uninspired  Ming  flower  painters,  had  been  softened  up  into  delicate 
decorative  panels  for  TsIng,  whose  rich  colouring  tried  to  make  up  for 
lack  of  drawing.  In  so  far  as  Court  figure  painting  persisted,  it  degenerated 
to  still  more  doll-like  round-shouldered  men  and  women  than  are  to  be 
found  on  the  lacquered  screens.  The  last  stage  of  the  doll  degeneration 
are  the  aniline-tinted  "rice-paper  paintings"  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  second  movement  was  one  of  Reibun,  one  not  unlike  that  ot 
Shunkio  and  Chosugo,  arch  realists  of  Tartar  Yuen.  Here,  again,  drawings 
of  flowers  and  birds  played  the  principal  part.     But  the  lack  of  real  feeling 


MODERN    CHINESE   ART  153 

for  line  and  proportion — crushed  out  of  the  Chinese  mind  in  late  Ming, 
and  never  a  part  of  the  Manchu  mind  at  all— kept  these  studies  from 
having  much  more  than  a  certain  botanical  value.  This  movement  would 
naturally  blend  with  the  first,  as  Shunkio's  Yuen  realism  had  blended 
with  Joki's  idealism.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  give  names  to  this  triply- 
weakened  flower  art,  any  more  than  we  care  to  quote  names  of  Italian 
mosaic  workers  through  the  eighteenth  century. 

A  third  movement  is  the  Christian  or  European  influence,  due  often 
to  actual  tuition  by  Jesuit  favourites  at  the  palace,  who  had  more  or  less 
skill  at  oil  painting.  It  is  rather  pathetic  to  think  of  their  probably 
amateurish  daubs  being  admired  as  "illumination"  by  descendants  of 
Kakei.  But  some  new  elements  of  richness  and  depth  in  colouring 
may  have  entered  modern  Chinese  art  from  this  source  and  blended 
with  the  nature  movement  of  realism  already  mentioned. 

A  fourth  movement,  still  pictorial,  concerned  the  perpetuation,  in 
very  weakened  form,  of  Tartar  styles  in  Northern  Buddhist  art.  We 
have  seen  samples  of  this  powerful  sacred  figure  work  in  Tang  (Enriuhon) 
and  in  the  Kin  contemporaries  of  Sung.  These  Tartar  forms  prevailed 
also  in  Mongolia  and  Manchuria,  even  up  to  the  banks  of  the  Amoor, 
and  are  preserved  in  the  few  rare  and  degenerate  modern  Corean 
Buddhist  works.  They  were  known  in  the  work  of  Rikushinchu  of 
Yuen,  already  losing  fine  and  natural  proportions  ;  and  in  Northern 
Ming  Buddhist  work  where  the  figures  have  become  so  wiry  in  line,  so 
doll-like  in  curve,  and  so  dumpy  in  proportion,  as  to  make  gods  and 
devils  equally  hideous.  Now  a  new  form  of  this  more  "  Indian  "  style 
was  coming  in  with  the  Lamaistic  faith  that  followed  home  the  Tsing 
conquerors  of  Thibet.  Eventually  Thibetan  Buddhism  became  the 
Court  religion  at  Peking  ;  and  its  art,  a  minutely  finished  but  hard 
and  unfeeling  school  of  sacred  figure  painting,  close  to  the  Greek 
traditions  of  Mount  Athos,  came  in  to  modify  Court  style.  The  two 
sacred  schools,  the  old  Tartar  and  the  new  Thibetan,  naturally  blended 
in  modern  Peking,  but  without  real  regeneration  or  any  power  to 
react  on  Chinese  design  except  in  the  way  of  stiffness  and  mere 
gorgeousness  of  colour.  This  doll-like  religious  style,  and  the  doll-like 
secular  style,  mentioned  under  the  first  movement,  confirmed  each 
other's  weakness. 

The  fifth  movement  was,  of  course,  that  "bunjinga  "  of  the  Confucian 
party — now    in    opposition — a    school    of  feeble    landscape    monochrome 


154     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND  JAPANESE   ART 

inherited  from  Ming.  No  longer  understanding  anything  about  line, 
its  drawing  is  a  travesty.  Knowing  nothing  about  notan  its  spotting 
is  cold  and  monotonous  like  the  scrolls  of  written  characters  that  were 
equally  venerated.  It  is  not  unnatural  that  to  the  "  literary  man  "  his 
poetical  scroll  and  his  symbolistic  scrawl  should  hang  side  by  side  on 
the  same  wall.  There  is  no  distance,  no  foreground  ;  mountains  and 
figures  stand  on  each  other's  heads.  There  is  no  sizing  of  the  paper 
or  silk  with  glue  so  that  ink  washes  may  be  manipulated — that  would 
be  too  vulgarly  "professional."  The  ink  touches  must  soak  into 
unprepared  paper,  and  the  skill  will  lie  in  letting  them  so  soak  as  to 
look  like  the  similar  soaking  of  the  edges  of  a  written  word.  No 
doubt  a  certain  dexterity  in  making  these  superposed  soakings  blend 
into  a  faint  resemblance  of  Yuen  clouding  has  a  certain,  if  the  only, 
merit  in  this  work.  But  after  you  have  seen  the  trick  accomplished 
for  the  hundredth  time,  on  mountains  and  grasses  utterly  uninteresting 
in  themselves,  you  see  that  it  is  literature,  not  art.  This  work  some- 
times borrows  a  certain  prettiness  of  colouring  in  birds  and  flowers  from 
the  first  movement  ;  on  the  other  hand  it  lends  a  degenerating 
"  mossiness "  and  wriggling  worminess  to  the  first  movement's  drawing 
of  its  stems.  There  is  thus  some  tendency  for  the  first  and  fifth  move- 
ments to  coalesce.  For,  for  the  most  part,  the  extreme  bunjinga 
school  remained  during  Kanghi's  reign  "in  opposition,"  and  only  came 
out  to  full  fruition,  its  final  triumph  in  the  murder  of  Chinese  art, 
and  in  the  deification  of  the  dead  bones  of  formalism,  in  Kienlung's 
and  subsequent  reigns. 

But  now  we  have  to  speak  of  a  sixth  movement  in  Kanghi's  reign, 
not  unrelated  to  some  of  the  preceding,  which  contains  the  only 
really  vital  element  in  early  Tsing  art — and  that  is  the  adaptation 
of  eclectic  design    to    modern    Chinese    industries. 

As  is  natural  in  all  great  industrial  movements,  the  most  of 
it  is  architecture.  It  is  not  that  the  main  constructive  features  in 
Tsing  architecture  are  radically  difi^erent  from  previous  styles,  nor 
even  that  the  structural  element  is  not  on  the  whole  richer.  In 
leaning  to  a  greater  wealth  of  decoration  it  but  follows  in  a 
measure  the  downward  trend  of  Tokugawa  architecture.  Still  there 
is  more  positive  grandeur  and  splendour  about  it — with  its  marble 
terraces,  railings  and  even  arches,  and  its  splendid  superstructures  in 
glazed    faience — as    notably    in    what    we    may    call    the    great    triumphal 


MODERN    CHINESE   ART  155 

arch  of  Confucius  at  Peking.  Across  the  lakes  of  the  imperial 
gardens,  too,  fine  arched  bridges  of  marble  or  other  stone  arise  in 
a  gentle  total  curve,  avoiding  all  our  hardness  of  straight  lines.  The 
circular  structure  of  the  Temple  of  Heaven,  though  of  modern  rebuild- 
ing, shows  the  most  splendid  panelling  in  its  ceilings,  aesthetically 
if  not  structurally  corresponding  to  Gothic  vaulting.  In  the  central 
rooms  of  the  Imperial  Palace  that  was  carefully  studied  by  Japanese 
architects  during  the  foreign  occupation  of  1901,  the  most  elaborate 
use  of  all  materials  contributes  to  the  over-rich  effect,  metals, 
ceramics  and  textiles  lending  variety  to  marble  and  gilded  carving. 
In  the  throne  room  itself  the  wealth  of  carved  wall  panels,  done  in  the 
richest  lacquers,  and  working  into  intertwisted  patterns  of  cloud  and 
dragons,  is  only  surpassed  by  the  gem  of  the  throne  itself,  whose 
back  is  a  L.acoon-like  openwork  carving  of  dragons  so  rich  that  it 
challenges  comparison  with  the  whole  world's  work.  This  is  the 
awful  "  dragon-throne "  of  China  ;  but  it  must  be  confessed  that 
with  all  its  marvellous  intricacy  it  cannot  stand  for  great  propor- 
tion, large  spacing  and  noble  rhythm.  If  we  compare  it  with  the 
intricate  patterns  upon  Ririomin  Rakan's  garments  the  inferiority 
is  at  once  seen.  Or  compare  it  with  the  architecturally  ordered 
intricacy  of  the  design  upon  the  early  Japanese  Trinity  with  a 
screen.  It  does  not  lead  and  finally  submerge  the  eye  in  a  satisfactorily 
noble  curve  system.  This  failing  is  true  of  most,  even  the  most 
splendid,  Tsing  decorative  art.  In  such  elaborate  carvings  as  the 
panels  in  decoration  of  the  "  Cho  Sing "  temple  of  Canton,  we  get 
this  same  overloading  and  overcrusting,  with  the  little  doll-like 
figures  of  contemporary  painting  becoming  solid  little  mannikins  in 
space  of  three  dimensions.  In  some  of  the  more  elaborate  shops 
and  tea  houses  we  get  fine  spacing,  particularly  in  the  use  of  the 
characters  carved  into  rich  signs,  coloured  and  gilded.  I  have  always 
held  that  the  Chinese  script  is  capable  of  as  noble  architectural 
treatment  as  Arabic  texts  from  the  Koran  in  Mohammedan  temples. 

If  now,  at  this  period  so  near  the  end  of  Chinese  art,  we  ask 
where  this  varying  mass  of  motive  comes  from,  we  have  to  refer, 
among  other  things,  back  to  some  ancient  bronze  vessels  with  which 
we  began  our  history  of  Chinese  art  in  Chapter  I.  In  every  period 
of  Chinese  art,  since  the  Sung  (So)  dynasty  at  least,  there  has  been  a 
persistent  copying  of  the  earliest  forms  and  patterns,  generally  taken  not 

VOL.    II.  ^ 


156     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

from  originals,  but  from  the  prints  of  the  Po  ku  t'u  lu.  Han  (Kan)  and 
Tang  (To)  had  their  own  styles,  but  Tang  was  a  little  antiquarian.  The 
porcelains  of  Sung  were  all  copied  from  Shang  (Sho)  or  Chow  (Shu) 
bronzes.  Most  alleged  ancient  bronzes  are  really  imitation  of  Yuen,  Ming 
and  Tsing.  But  beside  this  actual  copying  of  designs  from  early  bronzes, 
the  element  of  Pacific  art,  which  formed  the  chief  fabric  of  pre-Han 
motives,  never  quite  died  out  of  certain  forms  of  Chinese  ornament, 
and  was  specially  rehabilitated  in  modified  form  for  Ming  and  Tsing 
ornament.  Just  as  the  whole  scheme  of  Persian  rug  design  is  only 
primitive  realistic  pattern  generalized  and  squared  off  into  appropriate 
spacing — just  as  this  truth  explains  all  early  convention  arts  such  as 
those  of  the  North  American  Indians — so  in  Chinese  inlay,  and 
embroidery,  and  weaving  especially  ;  and  even  on  carved  woods  we 
find  abstract  squarish  forms  that  seem  at  first  to  suggest  keys,  but 
are  only  generalized  versions  of  dragon,  face  and  cloud  forms  that 
were  first  found  upon  the  Pacific  bronzes.  The  Chinese  seal  character, 
itself  product  of  conventional  squaring,  is  derived  from  the  inscriptions 
on  bronze  utensils  of  early  date.  Such  openwork  in  modern  rectangular 
lines  as  we  see  above  the  balcony  of  the  Canton  shops  is  only  a 
modification  of  Pacific  dragons  and  bands — of  just  about  the  same 
degree  of  remoteness  as  the  almost  identical  patterns  upon  Aino 
dresses  and  Alaskan  blankets.  All  three  have  descended  through 
millennia  of  Northern  darkness  from  a  common  source,  to  blend  at 
last  in  simplified  rectangular  pattern.  These  square  cloudings  are  often 
reduced  to  curves,  both  on  rugs  and  garments  ;  and  a  most  interesting 
collocation  is  furnished  by  my  photograph  of  the  splendid  Shang  bronze 
in  contrast  to  its  modern  carved  wood  Tsing  stand.  The  patterns  on 
the  bronze  above  are  Pacific  art,  genuine,  as  it  was  in  China  some 
1,500  years  before  Christ.  The  patterns  on  the  stand  below  are 
modified  Pacific  art,  such  as  has  come  down  by  conventional  paring  and 
simplification  to  the  China  of  to-day.  It  should  be  noticed  again  that  the 
Mongolian  pyramidal  forms  at  the  bottom  of  the  dragon  wall  panels  in  the 
throne  room  are  only  conventional  relics  of  Han  mountains,  as  seen  on 
bronzes  and  glazed  pottery  of  the  time  of  Christ.  Combined  with  these 
venerable  forms  we  shall  see  everywhere  in  modern  China  flower  passages 
of  weak  drawing  which  are  the  last  echo  of  Sung  art,  and  in  the  temples 
stunted  effigies  of  gods  which  are  the  last  declination  of  Tang  sacred  art. 
Thus  the  past  hands  down  its  small  proportion  of  legacy  to  the  present. 


MODERN    CHINESE    ART  157 

But  by  far  the  most  interesting  use  of  this  generalized  patterning 
finds  its  place  in  modern  China's  master  art,  porcelain.  Here  I 
care  not  so  much  to  dwell  on  the  solid  coloured  pieces,  upon  the 
colouring  generally,  so  much  as  upon  the  legitimate  use  for  mere 
decoration  of  patterns  which  have  lost  their  pictorial  value.  To 
realize  this  divorce  between  painting  and  design  in  Tsing,  wc  have 
only  to  notice  how  an  utterly  spaceless  and  putty ish  bunjinga  scroll 
is  hung  up  against  dignified  carved  walls,  or  behind  beautiful  blue 
and  white  vases.  The  bunjin  painting  has  become  an  art  divorced 
from  architectural  spacing,  and  becomes  a  formless  inscription.  The 
really  vitally  used  elements  are  only  those  motives  which  have  lost 
their  early  pictorial  meaning,  and  have  not  been  adapted  into  fine 
spacings  upon  the  side  of  well-shaped  vases.  Structurally  this  art 
is  like  that  of  North  American  Indians  and  early  Egyptians  upon 
pottery  and  baskets  ;  but  it  is  much  finer  in  quality.  Elements 
of  Pacific  scroll,  Han  curve.  Tang  dragons.  Sung  flowers  and  Ming 
landscapes  "  pool  their  issues  "  and  fall  into  order  as  finely-placed 
spots.  A  most  splendid  illustration  is  the  photograph  of  a  choice  small 
collection  of  porcelains  made  at  Peking  during  the  occupation.  The 
perfection  of  the  photograph  in  preserving  local  values  makes  us  almost 
see  the  colours  of  the  originals. 

More  especially  into  the  porcelain  art  of  Kanghi  entered  those 
coloured  styles  of  which  I  have  spoken  in  the  first  four  Tsing 
movements.  Almost  realistic  drawings  of  flowers,  birds  and  fruits 
were  reproduced  upon  the  sides  of  pale  green  vases,  with  brilliant 
colourings  derived  from  nature  study.  Upon  others  branch  forms 
that  more  recall  Sung  painting  appear  ;  such  rather  characterize  Ming 
porcelains.  Another  range  of  Kanghi  porcelains  gives  us  the  little 
doll-like  Chinese  figures  in  blues  and  pinks,  and  surrounded  by 
architecture  and  gardens,  which  are  found  in  the  album  paintings  of 
the  day,  and  come  down  to  us  as  a  kind  of  transcript  ot  the  rice 
paper  trivialities.  The  so-called  willow  pattern  in  blues  is  a  Tsing 
modification  of  Ming  garden  paintings,  as  of  Kiuyei — become  stifi^ 
and  prescribed.  So  we  could  trace  the  derivation  of  every  kind  of 
design  that  enters  into  Chinese  modern  porcelain  to  an  antecedent 
in  some  of  the  pictorial  or  sculptural  styles  already  described  in  this 
book.  But,  of  course,  this  does  not  detract  from  the  fine  intelligence 
which  suggested  their  perfect  adaptation  to  this  exquisite  art  ot  porcelain. 

L  2 


158     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND   JAPANESE   ART 

The  transition  from  the  Kanghi  period  of  Tsing  to  the  Kienlung 
is  marked  in  the  main  by  the  sudden  great  preponderance  of 
"  bunjinga."  This  is  due  to  the  final  triumph  of  the  Confucian 
party  after  the  extinguishing  of  the  Christians,  and  the  full  unques- 
tioned adaptation  of  later  Ming  bunjinga,  and  all  its  false  theories, 
with  the  added  weakness  of  a  new  formalism.  The  tendency  of  all 
the  decorative  arts  is  toward  either  quietness  or  weak  repetition  of 
Kanghi.  No  new  creative  influence  appears,  unless  it  be  more  specious 
ways  in  which  bunjinga  enters  into  porcelain  pattern.  The  vague 
forms  and  scratchy  masses  of  the  Confucian  paintings  are  now 
sometimes  frankly  reproduced  on  the  vases.  The  pictorial  art  itself 
grows  thinner,  and  almost  without  a  gleam  of  creative  meaning. 
The  round-shouldered,  thin-necked,  long-headed  ladies  of  Ming  have 
become  the  little  rice  paper  lay  figures  ;  independent  flower  painting, 
even  for  pretty  colour,  has  almost  ceased  ;  bunjinga  inanities  have 
eaten  up  all  healthy  tissue  like  a  cancer.  Roughly,  and  going  back  to 
our  high  standard,  we  may  say  that  there  has  been  no  great  art  in  China 
since  early  Ming,  except  the  late  Ming  and  early  Tsing  porcelains,  and 
no  very  great  art  since  Sung  and  early  Yuen.  The  long  line  of  fall  of 
Chinese  art  has  not  been  exaggerated.  The  end  may  be  seen  to-day 
in  any  Chinese  house  or  shop,  where  the  most  trivial  brush  scratches 
appear  to  deck  the  walls. 


Chapter    XVI. 
MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    KIOTO. 

The    Shijo    School. 

OF  all  periods  of  Japanese  art  the  Tokugawa  is  the  most  disturbed, 
cut  up  into  minor  and  local  effort,  without  national  purpose, 
concentration  or  style.  The  first  great  cleavage  was  between 
the  caste  of  the  aristocrats  and  the  rise  of  the  people  ;  first  the 
artisans  in  the  cities,  then  their  new  culture  becoming  partly  shared  by 
the  farmers  in  the  country.  We  have  already  seen  the  art  of  the 
yashiki,  in  so  far  as  it  presents  any  novel  features,  consisting  chiefly 
of  two  schools,  the  modification  of  Kano  idealism  under  Tanyu,  and 
the  Korin  school  of  impressionism.  We  come  now  to  a  necessarily 
brief  account  of  other  schools,  in  whole  or  in  part  detached  from 
the  former,  which  were  organized  by  the  common  people  of  the  cities 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  expression  to  their  new  cultural  life. 

A  cultural  life  of  the  common  people  of  Japan  was  in  some  sense 
a  new  thing.  In  the  older  periods  of  art,  such  as  the  Fujiwara,  the 
Hojo,  the  Ashikaga,  education  had  not  been  widely  dispersed  among 
the  masses  ;  or  at  least  we  have  little  remaining  indication  of  any 
extensive  popular  intellectual  life.  Certainly  the  recognized  schools  of 
ancient  art  had  been  practised  chiefly  by  the  lords  and  gentlemen, 
either  of  the  Emperor's  Court,  or  of  the  military  Courts  of  Shogun  and 
daimio. 

And  yet  it  would  be  easy  to  exaggerate  the  novelty  of  a  popular  culture. 
Indications  there  are  that  the  Japanese  people  were  never  a  sodden, 
ignorant  mass  of  labourers  like  the  Russian  Moujiks,  a  mere  trampled 
foundation  upon  which  the  nobles  could  build  their  exquisite  superstructures. 
In  ancient,  pre-Nara  days,  the  order  of  society  was  relatively  democratic, 
farmers,  soldiers  and  gentlemen  being  pretty  much  one  and  the  same, 
like  the  old  English  Yeomanry.     The  village  popular    organization    still 


46o     EPOCHS   OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

exists  to-day  as  the  germ  of  the  national  constitution.  Some  of  the 
verses  in  the  earlier  anthologies  were  culled  from  manuscripts  kept  as 
treasures  in  the  houses  of  the  well-to-do  countrymen,  some  the  product 
of  their  own  daughters'  genius.  And  there  is  plenty  to  show,  from  the 
fictional  literature  of  the  Fujiwara  age,  and  from  the  rebuilding  of  this 
material  in  the  No  plays,  that  the  common  people,  even  the  servants, 
understood  much  of  the  culture  of  their  masters,  and  sympathized  with 
it.  In  the  thirteenth  century  it  was  the  very  merry-making  of  the 
farmers  that  led  to  the  comic  drama  of  Kiogen  ;  and  the  leading 
actors  of  Ashikaga  days,  the  wonderful  operatic  composers,  were  not 
reckoned  samurai  by  birth.  It  is  rather  the  fact  of  a  distinctive  culture 
among  the  Tokugawa  populace  that  is  the  new  feature ;  and  this  has 
already  been  explained  in  Chapter  XV.  as  the  outcome  of  artificial 
conditions,  by  which  the  samurai  were  forced  to  hold  their  conservation 
aloof  from  an  advancing  world. 

No  doubt  in  this  divided  culture  of  gentry  and  populace,  each 
suffered  from  the  separation.  The  art  of  the  Kano  School  especially 
failed  to  avail  itself  of  the  vigorous  thought  and  life  of  its  neighbours 
in  the  adjoining  wards.  On  the  other  hand  the  art  of  the  people, 
uninfluenced  by  those  who  should  have  been  its  natural  leaders — directing 
it  into  lines  of  high  ideal  and  refined  taste — often  tended  to  fall  into 
triviality  and  sometimes  into  vulgarity.  The  very  evils  feared  and  con- 
demned by  Tokugawa  censors  in  popular  illustration  and  the  popular  drama 
were  due  largely  to  the  very  exclusive  conservation  that  caused  the  fear. 
If  lyeyasu  and  his  successors  had  not  been  so  intent  on  giving  their 
samurai  a  separate  education,  they  might  have  lifted  the  people  to  a 
higher  plane  of  morality.  Let  it  be  said  to  the  credit  of  the  latter,  how- 
ever, that,  even  without  such  leadership,  and  through  their  own  inner 
divination  of  the  meaning  of  loyalty,  they  were  imbibing  through  those 
very  condemned  popular  prints,  and  through  the  novels  and  plays  built 
upon  samurai  life,  some  universal  conception,  however  rude,  of  Spartan 
morals,  a  conception  that  has  shown,  in  recent  wars,  the  sons  of 
Tokugawa  farmers  to  be  as  staunch  patriots,  with  the  same  sacred 
motives,  as  the  sons  of  Tokugawa  buke.  Perhaps,  even  with  all  its 
weakness,  we  should  thank  the  dualism  for  giving  any  chance  at  all  to 
popular  art,  and  for  not  forcing  it  into  channels  of  Kano  choosing.  Even  the 
school  of  Koyetsu  was  too  high  and  "aesthetic"  to  be  popularized.  Perhaps 
no  course  in  popular  art  but  that  which  actually  occurred  is   conceivable. 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART   IN    KIOTO  i6i 

But  an  added  weakness,  within  the  lines  of  popular  art  itself,  was 
its  tentativeness  and  localization,  through  which  it  divided  itself  into 
small  separated  schools,  and  never  approached  flir  toward  any  single 
national  style.  In  most  places  it  was  rather  experimental  and 
amateurish.  Its  local  and  personal  attempts  were  mostly  doomed  to 
triviality  and  fiilure.  And  it  is  only  in  two  out  of  the  many  experiments 
that  such  a  powerful  technique  and  such  school  tradition  were  so  rooted 
as  to  make  them  worthy  of  note  here  as  great  popular  academies 
standing  side  by  side  with  Kano  and  Korin.  These  were  the  new 
schools  of  design  that  arose  among  the  manufacturing  populace  of 
Kioto  upon  the  one  hand,  and  among  the  artisan  and  merchant  masses 
of  Yedo  upon  the  other.  Other  local  schools,  like  those  of  Nagasaki, 
Nagoya,  Fukui,  were  weak  or  abortive.  Only  in  the  work  of  the 
two  capitals  could  arise  art  which  should  be  at  once  new,  teachable  in 
a  clear  technique,  high  in  aesthetic  character,  involving  large  classes  of 
pupils  in  several  generations,  and  exerting  its  influence  not  only  upon 
mural  and  panel  painting,  but  throughout  the  whole  local  field  of 
industrial  design.  Such  breadth  and  depth  may  be  said  to  have  been 
reached  by  both  the  Shijo  and  the  Ukiyoye.  In  the  present  chapter 
we  shall  confine  ourselves  chiefly  to  the  Shijo,  at  Kioto. 


It  cannot  be  said  that  the  break  between  the  two  strata  of  art  in 
Tokugawa  is  a  sudden  one.  Rather  shall  we  see,  in  both  this  and 
the  following  chapter,  that  the  consciousness  of  a  difl^erence  was  ot 
such  slow  growth  that  it  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist  earlier  than  the 
period  Genroku  that  began  in  1688.  By  that  time  the  Kano  and 
Koyetsu  movements  had  reached  their  culmination  ;  and  by  the  end 
of  Genroku  they  were  already  starting  into  decay.  The  form  of 
samurai  organization  had  now  found  itself:  what  it  implied  all  knew. 
Yedo  had  now  become  a  great  habitable  city,  and  many  of  the  artisans  and 
most  of  the  old  school  of  artists  had  deserted  the  ancient  seat  of  culture 
at  Kioto  and  passed  over  to  the  new  Paris.  Kioto  was  more  deserted 
and  left  to  itself  than  ever  in  its  history.  Moreover,  the  Ming  dynasty 
in  China  had  just  fallen,  and  the  great  reign  of  the  Manchu  emperor, 
Kanghi,  was  in  full  swing.  The  new  literary  activity  in  compilation 
of  the  Tsing  scholars— their  summarizing,  as  it  were,  of  the  forms  and 
results  of  Chinese  culture — could  not  be  kept  permanently  out  of 
Japan    in    spite  of  the  embargo  upon  foreign  commerce.     Nagasaki  was 


1 62     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

already  the  sole  cosmopolitan  city  of  the  empire  ;  for  there  were 
allowed  to  come  the  sparse  Dutch  ships  to  the  prison  island  of 
Deshima,  and  there,  too,  came  the  only  ships  that  could  bring  letters 
and  immigrants  from  China.  The  Chinese  fared  better  than  the  Dutch 
in  being  allowed  general  residence  in  the  city,  with  right  to  build 
their  own  quarters  and  temples.  The  people  of  Japan  wanted  to 
understand  themselves,  their  country  and  the  world.  Hence  the  some- 
what complex  elements  that  entered  into  their  movement  for  self- 
education. 

It  was  a  question  largely  of  where  new  material  should  be 
found.  People  were  tired  of  mystical  Buddhism,  of  nature  idealism, 
and  of  Fujiwara  Court  tradition.  There  was  dawning  consciousness 
that  they  were  a  great  national  people,  with  a  great  past  to  be 
re-interpreted.  Hence  the  new  popular  histories  that  were  worked 
out  in  several  places,  particularly  Mito.  It  was  the  unique  merit 
of  the  scholars  of  Mito,  ably  encouraged  in  this  case  by  an 
enlightened  daimio,  that  they  fixed  their  eye  upon  nationality  and 
fearlessly  exposed  the  false  position  of  the  shogunate.  In  Yedo, 
self-consciousness  was  being  further  developed  by  the  popular 
theatre  which  had  grown  up,  not  so  much  out  of  the  No  dramas  as 
of  the  popular  puppet  shows.  Motoori  was  about  to  conduct  his 
important  investigations  into  the  nature  of  pure  Shinto,  and  its 
relation  to  the  Emperor  and  nationality.  Moreover,  there  was  a 
great  growing  desire  for  facts  in  the  natural  sciences  ;  collections  of 
birds,  plants,  insects  were  made,  geological  studies  for  mining  purposes 
attempted  ;  better  methods  of  medicine  and  surgery  desired.  This 
movement  implied  a  fresh  realistic  study  of  the  details  of  Japanese 
nature  on  the  one  hand,  and  an  attempt  to  derive  as  much  universal 
scientific  information  through  Dutch  sources  as  possible  on  the  other. 
We  must  remark  that  this  eighteenth  century  is  a  great  era  of 
scientific  development  in  Europe.  The  people  of  Japan,  though  shut 
out  from  that  Europe  by  exclusion  laws,  were  eager  to  share  in  the 
universal  knowledge,  and  ready  to  risk  everything  to  become  servants 
in  Dutch  families  even,  if  they  could  get  down  to  Nagasaki,  and  learn 
from  the  foreign  factors  or  learn  to  read  from  the  few  books  which 
they  imported. 

But    some    uplifting    element,    some     transcendental     standard,     some 
scholarly  and   intellectual    ideal    at    least — from   what   quarter   could   this 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART   IN    KIOTO  163 

be  derived  ?  The  samurai  had  their  Hangchow  idealisms  and  their 
codes  of  honour.  But  some  great  inspiration  should  lie  for  the  people 
beyond  mere  facts.  All  but  the  most  ignorant  classes  distrusted 
Buddhism.  Christianity  was  forbidden,  and  fear  of  it  was  the  chief 
discouragement  to  the  Nagasaki  movement.  Japan  had  never  been 
rich  in  original  philosophers  who  can  devise  great  speculating  systems 
or  found  new  fanatical  religions.  All  Japanese-founded  sects  have  been 
practical  simplifications  for  the  people.  Could  anything  come  from 
China  }  Was  there  any  phase  of  culture  in  that  strange  neighbour 
race,  now  so  separated  as  to  become  an  object  of  curiosity,  any  line  of 
idealistic    standard    which    Japan    had    never    tried  ? 

This  was  a  momentous  question,  and  it  was  answered  by  the 
bands  of  Chinese  merchants  and  scholars  who  now  began  to  pour 
into  Nagasaki,  partly  as  Ming  refugees  from  the  new  Manchu 
domination,  partly  as  the  general  expansion  of  China's  growing  popula- 
tion. Yes,  there  was  one  form  of  Chinese  culture  which  Japan  had 
never  yet  tried — the  ultra-Confucian  scholarship  conception  of  life  and 
art,  which  had  been  matured  for  the  first  time  in  late  Ming.  Japan, 
through  its  very  hatred  of  Kanghi's  friends,  the  Jesuits,  became  a 
natural  asylum,  a  sort  of  Plymouth  Rock,  for  those  Chinese  puritans 
who  hated  all  that  was  new  in  Kanghi's  movements.  They  brought 
over  their  porcelain  vases,  their  teak-wood  stands,  their  ink  cakes 
cast  in  wooden  blocks  and  gilded,  their  table  weights  of  marble, 
crystal  and  jade,  their  books  hitherto  unknown  in  Japan,  and  their 
precious  bunjinga  and  other  forms  of  Chinese-painted  scrolls  which 
they  hung  upon  their  walls.  A  new  actual  type  of  Chinese  cultural 
life  was  being  lived  before  the  eyes  of  the  Japanese  who  came  down 
to  Nagasaki  ;  and  it  thrilled  them  with  its  evident  standards  of 
impersonal  devotion.  The  high  literary  calm  of  these  Confucian 
scholars,  the  novel  charm  of  their  surroundings,  struck  a  new  ideal. 
The  Japanese  scholars  saw,  were  conquered,  and  went  home  to  Kioto 
or  Yedo  laden  with  treasures  to  set  up  little  imitation  mandarin 
libraries    for    themselves. 

Without  attempting  to  describe  this  movement  along  any  other  line 
than  that  of  art,  we  must  declare  it  at  once  to  have  been  a  combined 
fortune  and  misfortune.  The  actual  worth  of  what  it  introduced  was 
small.  Japan  had  been,  up  to  this  moment,  fortunately  preserved  from 
the  intellectual  perils  of  Confucianism.     Ming  destruction  by  the   bunjinga 


1 64     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

heresy  of  early  Ming  art  had  not  touched  Nippon.  Now  the  torch  began 
to  kindle,  and  the  fire  to  start,  and  the  national  traditions  of  Japanese  art 
over  nine-tenths  of  the  popular  fields  to  burn  down  to  cold  ashes  ! 

Yet  it  is  not  true  that  only  bunjinga  came  in  with  this  Chinese 
movement  to  Nagasaki.  All  forms  of  Kanghi  art  pressed  through  the 
commercial  gap,  especially  the  last  remains  of  pure  late  Ming  bird  and 
flower  painting,  and  the  painting  of  animals,  not  yet  strongly  touched 
by  bunjinga,  was  introduced.  With  them  came  the  coloured  flower- 
decorated  forms  of  Chinese  porcelain.  Chinese  porcelain,  the  so-called 
Hizen  ware,  is  still  the  great  product  of  that  Japanese  province  of  which 
Nagasaki  is  the  capital.  Besides  the  porcelain,  at  least  two  contemporary 
schools  of  Chinese  art  came  in  at  Nagasaki.  Several  Chinese  masters  of 
the  old  bird  and  flower  painting  actually  came  on  to  that  city  and  taught 
Japanese  pupils  in  special  academies.  Among  those,  one  of  the  greatest 
was  Chin  Nan-p'ing,  whom  we  have  already  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
chapter.  There  is  little  of  bunjinga  in  his  style,  which  is  highly  coloured 
and  given  to  the  drawing  of  birds  and  animals.  Although  not  powerful 
in  line,  it  reaches  considerable  charm  of  realism.  His  careful  drawing  of 
rabbits  at  the  foot  of  a  gnarled  plum  tree  is  a  true  relic  of  pure  Ming  art, 
a  Tsing  successor  of  Rioki.  There  are  many  flower  pieces  of  his  in  Japan. 
The  school  of  bird  and  flower  painting  inaugurated  by  him  in  Japan  is 
a  large  and  persistent  one,  and  soon  spread  to  both  Kioto  and  Yedo. 
Such  Japanese  names  as  Yuhi,  Sorin,  Soshiseki  and  Shunki  belong  to  it. 
The  whole  range  of  pretty  Japanese  flower  pieces  in  colour  which  the 
foreign  traveller  buys  for  the  decoration  of  his  home  comes  chiefly  from 
this  source.  One  of  the  last  masters  of  this  same  branch,  Wunkin,  I  knew 
in  Japan  before  his  death  in  1880.  He  was  the  son-in-law  of  Shunki. 
But  we  do  not  consider  the  school  important  enough  to  illustrate. 
Another  similar  school  was  started  by  a  Chinese  painter  named  Hosaigan, 
who  seems  to  have  penetrated  as  far  as  Kioto.  His  style  runs  more  to 
black-and-white  and  thin  colour.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  differentiate 
him  from  the  Nagasaki  school  as  a  whole. 

But  after  Kienlung's  accession  to  the  Chinese  throne  in  1726,  and  the 
final  defeat  of  the  Jesuit  party,  the  kind  of  influence  his  taste  had  in  art 
that  flowed  over  into  Japan  through  the  channel  of  Nagasaki  was  out  and 
out  "bunjinga."  The  enthusiasm  for  this  new  washed-out  style  of  work 
knew  no  bounds  ;  and  Japan,  except  the  work  of  the  aristocratic  schools, 
became  for  art  purposes,  between    1730  and  1760,  an  outlying  province  of" 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART   IN    KIOTO  165 

"bunjin"  China.  Province  after  province  was  swept  by  the  fire,  and 
to-day,  even,  travelling  over  a  great  part  of  the  interior  of  the  islands, 
everywhere  outside  of  the  castles  of  the  daimios  and  of  the  Buddhist 
temples,  we  find  no  ornament  in  houses  and  in  inns,  but  the  modern 
Chinese  litter,  cold  bits  of  jade,  and  the  single  undecorative  bunjinga 
kakemono  of  a  monotonous  landscape,  or  a  feeble  spray  of  orchids,  hung 
up  on  the  wall.  All  knowledge  of,  or  care  for,  Buddhist  art,  old  Tosa 
art,  Ashikaga  art  (Sesshu  included),  Kano  art,  and  Koyetsu  art,  were  swept 
away  and  destroyed  as  utterly  as  if  they  had  never  existed.  Even  to-day 
the  great  mass  of  well-to-do  country  people,  particularly  in  the  central  and 
southern  provinces,  if  shown  any  of  such  old  works,  would  shrink  away 
from  them,  as  from  the  defilement  of  "vulgarity."  When  I  first  went 
to  Japan  in  1878  there  were  many  representatives  of  such  views  in 
Tokio,  who  used  to  say  "  nothing  but  ink  rocks  and  black  bamboos  are 
refined  enough  for  a  gentleman  to  paint."  It  was  for  such  Japanese 
enthusiasts  that  the  really  great  Yuen  "bunjinga"  works  were  imported 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  Even  after  the  restoration,  when  the  master- 
pieces of  the  great  Kano  artists  could  be  bought  for  a  song,  there  was 
never  a  period  when  a  fine  Chinese  bunjinga  kakemono  would  not  bring 
several  thousands  of  yen.  My  praise  of  the  dethroned  Kanos  caused, 
at  first,  considerable  surprise  and  resentment  among  educated  classes. 

A  great  school  of  Japanese  "bunjinga"  fanatics  now  grew  up  in 
Japan,  whose  style  in  following  the  most  misshapen  cows,  gentlemen 
with  trepanned  skulls,  and  wriggly-worm  branches  of  their  masters 
shows  even  in  its  deliberate  distortion  a  certain  distinction.  Such  is  the 
work  of  Taigado  and  Buson,  to  give  conspicuous  example.  Great 
specimens  of  their  work  are  valued  to-day  by  countless  Japanese  at 
exorbitant  sums.  And  yet  from  any  universal  point  of  view  their  art 
is  hardly  more  than  an  awkward  joke.  A  Kano  painting  was  anathema 
to  such  men.  We  can  see  well  what  would  have  happened  to  all 
ancient  Japanese  art  if  these  Confucians  had  got  in  their  deadly 
work  a  century  earlier.  They  would  have  destroyed  in  Japan  all 
evidences  of  ancient  Chinese  art  as  well,  as  they  had  already  des- 
troyed it  in  China.  It  was  the  mstitution  of  the  samurai  alone,  and 
the  genius  of  Tanyu  and  his  Kano  followers  in  particular,  that  stood 
out  as  a  great  promontory  against  the  mad  storm  ot  Confucianism 
that  now  beat  upon  the  past.  But  for  the  Kano  academy  and 
eclecticism    at   Yedo,    and    the    Shogun's    passive    patronage    of  Buddhist 


1 66     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

temples,  all  the  Godoshis,  Ririomins,  Kakeis,  Bayens  and  Mokkeis 
in  Japan  would  have  been  swept  away  and  burnt  up  as  old  lumber  ; 
this  is  the  literal  truth.  In  Yedo  itself,  where  Kano  influence  was 
strong,  the  Chinese  influence  mixed  itself  to  some  extent  with  aris- 
tocratic technique,  and  so  we  have  the  eclectic  school  of  Tani  Buncho, 
about  1800,  which  thus  resembles  the  style  of  the  Ming  landscape 
artists  who  lived  from  1500  to  1550.  It  sometimes  resembles  Kano, 
sometimes  bunjinga,  sometimes  the  Nagasaki  of  Nanping — and  there 
were  frequent  combinations,  particularly  in  Kioto,  between  the  strict 
schools    of  Nagasaki     and    of  Bunjinga. 

About  the  central  city  of  Kioto,  with  its  population  of  non-samurai 
but  cultivated  artisans,  were  surging  and  raging  about  the  year  1750 
every  variety  of  these  complex  Chinese  movements,  with  an  infinity 
of  individual  experiments.  Here  was  an  answer  to  the  question.  What 
should  the  people  seek  for  an  ideal  ?  or  rather  it  has  a  hundred 
partial  answers,  given  at  once.  Buson  had  practically  established 
there  a  great  bunjinga  school.  Other  men,  like  Shuikei,  were  intro- 
ducing a  revived  kind  of  Taoist  figure  drawing,  like  some  of  the 
middle  Ming  figure  painters.  Even  a  descendant  of  Sogo  Shiubun 
and  Jasoku,  named  Shohaku,  was  perpetrating  extravagant  reproduc- 
tions of  old  Chinese  groups  and  landscapes  in  forms  about  as  crazy 
as  Buson's.  There  were  such  strange  hybrids  as  a  cross  between 
bunjinga  and  revived  Tosa !  No  combination  was  too  outlandish 
for   a   trial. 

It  was  just  then  that  into  this  me/ee  of  confused  attempts  fell  a 
native  Kioto  genius  willing  and  able  to  bring  some  kind  of  order 
and  style  out  of  contradictory  chaos.  This  man  was  Maruyama  Okio, 
one  of  the  same  educated  artisan  rank  as  the  majority  of  the  Kioto 
populace  who  worked  at  silk  weaving  and  fine  bronze  casting.  The 
derivation  of  his  style  shows  the  complexity  of  the  forces  that  had 
played  upon  him,  and  his  power  to  surmount  their  confusion.  He 
had  been  educated  at  first  as  a  pupil  in  a  modified  Kioto  branch 
of  the  Kanos.  Tanyu's  own  pupil,  Tsurugawa  Tanzan,  had  a  com- 
petent son,  Tanyei,  who  educated  into  fine  decorative  work  a  pupil 
named  Ishida  Yutei  ;  this  Yutei  had  a  son,  Yutei  2nd,  who  in  the 
rapid  changes  of  1740-50  had  chosen  to  go  to  Nature  for  fresh  feeling, 
and  was  painting  delicate  -  coloured  flower,  bird  and  animal  screens, 
in    a    style    half   Kano    and    half  Tosa,   with   a   dash  of  Chinese   realism 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    KIOTO  167 

thrown  in.  This  second  Yutei  was  the  teacher  of  Okio.  But  in 
literature  and  in  handwriting  Okio's  master  was  a  prince  of  the 
bunjinga,  Watanabe  Shiko,  whose  work  must  have  strongly  influenced 
him  ;  indeed  Okio  occasionally  essayed  the  pure  bunjinga  manner, 
and  he  was  well  acquainted  with  many  of  the  Buson  extremists. 
But  Okio  kept  his  head,  and  to  give  himself  prestige  in  the  move- 
ment he  had  decided  upon  declared  that  he  went  back  to  China 
indeed,  but  to  an  earlier  one,  and  not  the  Hangchow  China  cither,  but 
the  pure  realism  of  Shunkio  in  Zen.  To  enforce  the  thought  he 
took  a  name  in  which  the  second  character  kio  is  the  kio  in  Shunkio. 
A  double  realism  was  thus  Okio's  standard — the  realism  of  Yuen, 
and  the  new  realism  of  his  master,  Yutei,  extended  by  his  own  minute 
studies  of  the  nature  surrounding  picturesque  Kioto.  He  wandered 
through  the  mountains  and  learned  composition  and  the  laws  of  tree 
growth  from  every  picturesque  site.  He  kept  about  him  hens  and 
monkeys  and  swimming  fish,  and  loved  to  sketch  them  in  every 
attitude  of  motion.  The  birds  and  flowers  too  of  his  native  hills 
and    gardens    received    his    most    careful    attention. 

Now  this  new  move  of  Okio's  has  been  considerably  misunder- 
stood by  certain  European  scholars,  notably  Dr.  Anderson,  who  have 
reproached  Okio  for  not  carrying  out  his  realistic  ideal  to  full  shadow 
drawing  and  likeness  to  European  style.  Why  did  not  Okio  study 
under  the  Dutch  in  Nagasaki  }  If  he  had,  his  art  would  have  been 
debased,  as  Shiba  Kokan's  was.  He  founded  a  school  not  because 
he  had  a  new  kind  of  subject,  not  because  realism  would  lead  to 
a  single  universal  kind  of  photographic  accuracy,  but  because  he  had 
genius  enough  to  see  absolutely  new  kinds  of  possible  spacing  and 
line  system  in  natural  suggestion,  because  he  felt  new  beauties  of  notan 
spotting  in  feathers,  leaves  and  furry  bodies,  and  because  he  had  the 
power  to  invent  a  new  technical  method  of  expressing  all  these 
beauties.  His  brush-work,  his  quality  of  ink  and  pigment,  the  character 
of  his  chosen  paper,  the  actual  shapes  of  his  strokes  and  washes,  all 
these  are  absolutely  new  afi^airs,  a  special  technique  in  which  pupils 
would  have  to  be  trained.  In  the  mounting  of  his  kakemonos  he 
mostly  followed  modern  Chinese  taste,  thereby  implying  that  he  in- 
tended his  school  to  take  the  place  among  modern  scholarly  people 
that  bunjinga  had  been  occupying.  He  was  a  new  Chinese  realist,  if  you 
like,  far  beyond  anything  that  had  existed  in  China  since  Yuen  at  least. 


1 68     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

Okio's  subjects  were  taken  chiefly  from  the  scenery  and  animal 
life  of  his  native  Kioto.  He  sometimes  introduced  Chinese  groupings, 
but  his  studies  were  all  before  his  eye,  and  had  little  symbolical 
value.  It  was  all  for  new  splendours  of  line,  motion  and  notan. 
Landscape  for  him  became  a  new  spacing,  trees  a  new  law  of  growth  ; 
angles  supplanted  curves  everywhere  ;  textures  were  studied  as  never 
before,  and  particularly  effects  of  atmosphere.  In  this  way  Okio 
actually  forestalled  the  work  of  the  Barbizon  school  of  France,  and 
outdoor  notan  planes  of  atmosphere.  In  his  greatest  imaginative 
atmospheric  effects,  as  in  the  cloud  rack  of  dragon's  sport,  he  reaches 
heights  hardly  below  those  of  Sung  masters,  though  different.  He 
utterly  discarded  Kano  prejudice  and  generalization.  His  eye  was  a 
new  eye,  his  hand  a  new  hand.  His  landscapes  are  often  grand, 
broad  and  mural — though  probably  too  deficient  in  strong  notan. 
He  works  chiefly  for  middle  greys.  In  his  birds  and  animals  he 
sometimes  loses  force  by  becoming  too  minute.  But  he  never  puts 
in  a  stroke  that  does  not  have  organic  value  for  its  shape,  its  tones 
and  its  colour  ;  and  every  group  of  strokes  has  also  these  three  values. 
With  him,  as  with  all  great  masters,  nothing  is  left  to  chance.  He 
foresees  all  his  marvellous  effects.  In  figures  he  is  the  weakest, 
because  he  allowed  himself  to  work  largely  from  ancient  Chinese 
subjects  where  he  had  to  follow  Shunkio  or  some  other  Chinese 
tradition.  But  when  he  dealt  with  Japanese  figure  subjects  he  some- 
times introduces  tremendous  force,  and  new  ways  of  expressing 
notan,  quite  in  the  Tosa  methods.  Yet  sometimes  he  even  paints 
in  severe  Tosa  manner.  He  paints  peasants  and  city  girls  too, 
belles  of  the  tea-houses,  and  thus  forms  a  kind  of  Kioto  Ukiyoye. 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  there  is  no  monotony  in  him,  and  that 
his    range    is    very    wide. 

A  word  now  upon  how  this  art  of  his  became  so  popular  in  Kioto. 
Though  the  Imperial  Court  was  at  Kioto,  it  was  poor  in  this  world's 
goods,  and  the  new  art  could  flourish,  if  at  all,  only  under  popular 
patronage.  Who  were  Okio's  patrons  ?  Why,  the  silk  weavers  and 
bronze  casters,  the  embroiderers  and  fine  lacquerers,  the  aesthetic  priests 
of  Kioto  temples,  the  great  potters  grouped  at  the  foot  of  Arashiyama, 
the  great  merchants  who  sent  their  fine  wares  all  over  Japan,  even  to 
the  daimio's  yashiki.  Kioto  had  been  the  seat  of  fine  art  manufacturers 
since   the   days    of  Fujiwara  ;    and   it   is   so   to-day,   even  in    1906,   only 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    KIOTO  169 

the  modern  looms  of  Paris  and  America  have  supplanted  the  old 
domestic  industries  of  Nishijin.  The  owners  of  these  establishments, 
though  not  samurai,  and  mostly  sprung  from  families  of  common 
artisans,  had  accumulated  both  capital  and  taste  in  their  higher  kind  of 
living,  and  had  beautiful  private  houses  and  cherry  gardens  surrounded 
with  high  walls.  The  blank  walls  of  Kioto  streets  are  still  a  feature. 
But  once  within,  as  I  have  often  been,  one  is  entertained  most  royally 
and  charmingly  by  these  merchant  princes,  who  bring  out  from  their 
godowns  wonderful  treasures  of  art,  ancient  and  modern.  Heretofore 
they  had  been  patrons  of  Kanos  and  Tosas,  recently  some  of  them 
had  gone  over  to  bunjinga.  But  there  was  little  in  the  latter  to 
suit  the  aesthetic  needs  of  men  who  were  first  of  all  business  men, 
and  not  scholars.  Moreover,  bunjinga  had  no  bearing  on  Kioto  and 
her  industries,  being  quite  unable  to  furnish  any  adequate  designs  where 
spacing  and  beauty  were  to  be  the  keys  to  success.  With  Okio,  how- 
ever, the  case  was  different.  No  landscapes  ever  painted  could  work 
in  better  for  the  tapestries  and  embroidered  fukusa — no  flower  pattern 
more  perfect  for  the  delicate  borders  of  ladies'  dresses,  for  rich  fans  and 
great  sumptuous  rolls  of  figured  satins  and  brocades.  The  very  dyeing 
of  the  cotton  stuffs  used  by  the  common  people  was  revolutionized  by 
the  beautiful  two,  three  and  five  plate  stencils  that  could  be  cut  from 
the  patterns  of  Okio  and  his  pupils.  No  finer  relief  designs  for  bronze 
utensils  could  be  found  than  delicately-sculptured  translation  in  relief 
from  Okio  sketches  of  fish  and  monkeys.  His  grander  designs  made 
mural  painting  as  fine  as  Tanyu's  best.  Here  was  indeed  an  art  to 
patronize,  which  discharged  all  the  functions  of  a  great  school,  and  yet 
was  both  new  and  native.  For  Okio  made  a  specialty  of  the  scenery 
of  the  neighbourhoods,  the  flora  and  fauna  dear  to  his  locality.  Tosa 
landscape  500  years  before  had  given  a  veritable  impression  of  Kioto 
mountains  and  valleys,  but  none  of  the  wonderful  mists  and  cool 
silhouette  effects  that  lie  along  these  storm-fringed  peaks.  It  was  a 
landscape  quiet  in  colour  as  Hangchow  or  bunjinga  itself,  but  purely 
Japanese— not  in  the  least  like  Tosa,  but  exactly  reproducing  the 
beautiful  suburbs  that  were  the  city's  pride.  Arashiyama,  Takano, 
Chionin,  the  valley  of  Tofukuji  ;  views  of  Lake  Biwa,  the  Yodogawa 
at  Biodoin  and  Fushimi  ;  delicate  old  gardens  preserved  from  Ashikaga 
days,  the  fineness  of  snow  on  great  pines  and  soft  maples,  the  birds 
that  flutter  in  the   branches,  the  wild  deer  and   monkeys   that  call   from 


170     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE    ART 

the  wild  valleys  about  Kozanji — all  these  spots  and  subjects  of  fame 
and  beauty  entered  into  Okie's  work  and  made  of  it,  amid  popular 
enthusiasm,   a   perfect  and   complete   civic  art. 

Works  of  Okio  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  principal  collections  of 
the  world.  He  is  now  held  to  be  one  of  the  great  national  geniuses. 
But  when  I  first  went  to  Japan  in  1878,  his  name  was  hardly  known 
to  Yedo  dealers  and  collectors.  His  reputation  had  remained  local  in 
Kioto  and  the  neighbouring  city  of  Osaka,  to  a  less  degree  in  the 
manufacturing  centre  of  Nagoya.  There  are  specimens  in  Japanese, 
English,  German,  French  and  American  collections,  and  especially  in 
the  hands  of  the  great  Japanese  merchant-princes  of  the  new  Meiji  era. 
Most  of  these  were  derived  from  the  old  eighteenth  century  collections 
of  Kioto  business  houses. 

What  seems  at  first  most  novel  in  Okio's  work  is  his  animal  painting. 
Here  are  the  furry  bodies  of  monkeys,  dogs,  cats,  and  foxes  and  deer, 
conceived  as  new  pictorial  substances.  He  was  specially  fond  of  painting 
little  fat  roly-poly  puppies.  His  great  white  monkeys  in  Boston  are 
done  by  a  new  broad  black  and  solid  white  touches  on  grey  paper. 
In  swimming  fish  he  invented  a  new  art,  where  the  beautiful  flexible 
curves  of  the  slippery  bodies,  and  the  graceful  lines  of  their  motion, 
form  the  very  substance  of  the  picture.  It  is  also  beauty  in  convention. 
The  finest  specimen  is  the  great  carp  screen  owned  by  Prince  Date',  the 
former  lord  of  Sendai.    Delicacy  of  motion  drawing  can  no  further  go. 

Of  birds,  Okio  was  most  fond  of  hens  and  of  wild  ducks.  The 
fluffy  feather  tones,  worked  in  with  transparent  colours,  were  most 
beautiful.  For  birds  of  flight,  generally  wild  duck  and  geese,  Okio  is 
as  transcendent  as  for  his  fish.  They  are  not  generalized  blots  like  the 
flying  birds  of  Kano,  nor  are  they  all  line  like  the  careful  birds  of 
Sesshu.  They  are  as  alive  as  Toba  Sojo's  animals,  yet  finished  in  all 
their  modelling,  spotting  and  colouring.  Fine  examples  are  in  Mr.  Freer's 
collection.  Especially  fine  is  his  great  four-panel  screen  of  two  wild 
geese  flying  over  the  surf  of  a  flat  shore.  The  lines  of  breakers  rolling 
in  are  hardly  more  than  light  lines  upon  a  broad  unbroken  background 
of  grey.  Against  this  atmosphere  the  contrast  of  the  dark  grey  and 
black  tones  of  the  flying  birds  comes  with  startling  force.  It  is  a  daring 
study  in  values  that  even  surpasses  modern  Europe,  Monet  and  Whistler. 

In  landscapes,  Okio's  earliest  style  is  in  many  respects  like  Kano, 
even    Tanyu,    as    especially    seen     in     the    Fujiyama    with   cloud,    in   the 


v;.N'i 


m 


Sleepimg  Fox.     Bv  R.  Tctsuzan. 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    KIOTO  171 

Fenollosa  collection.  No  finer  treatment  of  soft  cloud  was  ever  done 
than  this.  In  snow  landscapes,  as  in  a  rough  sketch  on  a  paper  screen 
in  Boston,  he  reaches  great  heights.  Snow  takes  utterly  new  forms 
under  his  precise  brush.  They  are  not  so  grand  as  the  snow  pieces  of 
Sesshu  and  Motonobu  indeed  ;  but  they  build  their  beauties  upon 
modern  realistic  drawing  and  spacing.  A  very  beautiful  landscape  in 
Okio's  most  tender  manner  is  owned  by  Mr.  Dwight  F.  Davis,  of 
St.  Louis.  A  waterfall  leaps  from  the  high  level  of  a  mountain  lake, 
across  granite  cliffs,  to  a  charming  inhabited  valley.  No  one,  not  even 
Ruskin  or  Turner,  has  ever  used  finer  pencilling. 

But  Okio's  greatest  landscape  work  is  mural  ;  finest  of  all  the  great 
pine  and  shore  scenes  on  the  walls  of  a  room  in  Mr.  Kawasaki's  private 
Kobe  museum.  Mr.  Masuda,  of  Tokio,  has  others.  The  greatest  rock 
and  waterfall  screens  in  this  mural  manner  are  those  owned  by 
Mr.  Nishimura,  the  great  silk  manufacturer  of  Kioto.  His  pines  stand 
up  gaunt,  straight-lined  and  long-limbed,  yet  with  fan-like  foliage  in 
pure  flat  areas  of  exquisite  greys,  for  all  the  world  like  photographs  of 
scenery  in  that  part  of  the  country.  While  scratching  in  individual 
pine  needles,  he  does  not  lose  the  mass,  as  even  do  the  great  Hangchow 
landscapists.  In  short,  what  Okio  gives  us  is  not  the  old  graceful  and 
powerful  conventional  compositions,  but  new  and  unexpected  angles  of 
spacing,  striking  even  if  awkward,  and  the  breadth  of  outdoor  masses 
in  notan.  In  spite  of  the  newness  and  vividness  of  the  impression, 
however,  it  cannot  quite  make  up  for  the  magnificent  imaginative 
suggestiveness  which  it  loses. 

Perhaps  the  most  stupendous  efforts  of  Okio  are  when  he  chooses 
to  combine  motives  of  landscape,  storm  cloud  and  the  animal  forms 
of  dragons  in  violent  motion.  Here,  in  his  greatest  pieces,  almost 
as  complicated  as  a  Sesshu,  he  rises  close  to  Hangchow,  Mokkei 
and  Chao  Ch'ang.  In  one  of  his  finest  screens  he  makes  a  great 
storm  dragon  arise  from  a  rocky  coast,  against  which  the  tortured 
waves  leap  and  boil  in  foam.  On  the  left,  water  and  cloud  are  swept 
into  a  single  opaque  mass.  The  body  of  the  dragon  is  as  realistically 
modelled  in  drawn  scales  as  an  enormous  lizard  in  bronze.  In  power 
of  form,  complexity  of  structure  and  brilliancy  of  notan,  this  rises 
very  close  to  the  level  of  Koyetsu. 

In  his  figure  pieces  Okio  tends  to  become  more  delicate.  His 
drawing  of  Chinese  ladies,  in   full   colours,  is  most  exquisite,  but  a  little 

VOL.    II.  ^ 


172     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND   JAPANESE   ART 

hard.  There  is  a  sort  of  wooden  heaviness  in  Okio's  mind  that  here 
shows  itself  most,  a  lack  of  idealism.  It  is  a  relic  of  his  Shunkio, 
Yuen,  proclivities.  Again,  in  his  Chinese  men  and  women,  and  some 
of  his  Japanese,  he  falls  back  on  stunted  short- nosed  types  of  face,  such 
as  were  liked  by  Chinese  and  Japanese  bunjinga.  On  the  other  hand, 
his  cleverest  figure  work  is  done  in  vigorous  drawing  on  makimono  of 
scenes  of  human  life.  The  greatest  of  these  is  his  "Seven  Misfortunes 
of  Man,"  in  famous  rolls  kept  at  Miidera  of  Otsu.  Here  crowds  are 
shown  in  extreme  suffering  of  earthquake,  tempest,  conflagration,  murder, 
execution,  etc.  It  is  one  of  the  most  horrible  things  in  the  world  in 
its  excessive  realism.  There  is  no  flinching  from  the  utmost  expression 
of  horror  and  pain.  The  agonies  of  a  man,  still  conscious,  but  being 
burned  alive  in  execution  at  the  stake,  are  most  minute.  If  we  compare 
this  notable  work  with  the  tremendous  torture  scenes  in  Nobuzane's 
Hell,  we  shall  divine  the  immense  superiority  of  the  latter,  in  that  the 
splendour  of  the  composition  and  colour  really  cast  a  glamour  over  the 
scene,  whose  awful  details  become  a  few  mosaic  details  of  the 
spectacle.  But  in  Okio,  there  is  not  an  aesthetic  or  moral  justification 
to  palliate  the  bare  realism.  Probably  the  least  offensive  passage  is  the 
lightning  flash,  whose  foreground  trees  are  split  in  the  midst  of  an 
illuminated  storm,  and  one  of  the  fleeing  figures  is  prostrated.  This 
is  reproduced  from  the  original  sketch  or  study.  It  is  interesting  that, 
in  spite  of  its  professed  realism,  no  trace  of  imitating  European  style 
through  the  Dutch  is  found  in  Okio.  He  evidently  regarded  it  as  of 
bad  form  and  unaesthetic. 

One  other  kind  of  figure  piece  Okio  occasionally  did,  namely,  the 
portrait  painting  of  certain  Kioto  belles,  with  much  the  same  motive 
that  actuated  his  contemporaries  Harunobu,  Koriusai  and  Kiyonaga,  in 
Yedo.  We  may  call  this  style  Kioto  Ukiyoye.  Into  it  he  sometimes 
threw  an  intensity  of  realism  and  a  finish  of  effect  that  relate  to  his 
Shunkio  Chinese  style.  His  chief  follower  in  this  line  of  work  is 
Nagaku. 

But  now  the  Shijo  school  could  never  have  risen  to  its  vast  range 
and  influence,  had  not  Okio  been  strong  enough  to  associate  with 
himself  other  powerful  artists  who  had  also  been  making  experiments, 
and  had  he  not  been  able  to  teach  to  a  host  of  able  pupils  the  very 
definite   technique   which   he   had   invented.       Here  indeed,   in  the    long 


Monkeys,  showing  Broad  Tkeatme: 
Sosen 


Monkeys,  showing  Minite  Treatment  ok  Fiu.     Sos'.'ii. 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    KIOTO  173 

roll  of  names  of  scions  of  this  school  through  three  and  four  genera- 
tions, down  to  the  present  day,  we  have  a  splendid  phalanx  of  original 
minds,  who,  though  never  more  powerful  than  the  originator,  introduced 
fresh  feeling  and   modified   beauties  of   execution    from   point   to   point. 

Of  these  the  most  important  group  was  found  by  Goshun,  and  his  two 
brothers  Keibun  and  Toyohiko.  Goshun  had  originally  been  a  leader 
of  the  bunjinga  artists,  a  follower  of  Buson  and  Taigado,  and  one  of 
real  talent.  His  crow  on  a  woolly  tangle  of  branches,  in  Boston, 
exhibits  this  phase.  But  Goshun  soon  fell  under  the  influence  of  the 
superior  order  and  beauty  of  Okio's  work,  and  went  over  to  him, 
with  all  his  house.  The  group  later  established  themselves  in  a 
special  and  prolific  atelier  near  the  head  of  Shijo,  or  "  Fourth  Avenue  " 
Bridge  in  Kioto,  and  from  their  combined  work  the  school  took  its 
name,  which  has  been  generalized  as  applying  to  the  whole  mass  of 
work  that  derives  from  Okio.  The  more  narrow  of  the  hair-splitters 
and  name-riveters  of  Kioto  would  to-day  condemn  this  wide  origin, 
and  have  it  that  Goshun  and  Keibun  founded  a  separate  school,  not 
under  Okio,  but  parallel  with  him,  and  that  the  name  Maruyama  school 
ought  to  apply  to  all  other  Okio-descended  tradition  than  theirs.  On 
the  other  hand,  every  prominent  teacher  of  each  generation  of  the 
Okio  school  demands  the  same  sort  of  nominal  exclusiveness  for  his 
pupils,  so  that  we  should  be  driven  to  recognize  some  twenty  different 
schools  in  Kioto  if  we  adopted  this  classification.  The  Ganku  school 
certainly  more  deserves  a  separate  name  than  Goshun's.  But  there 
is  prime  need,  in  speaking  and  writing,  for  some  common  name  to 
express  the  whole  Kioto  work,  from  1760  to  1900,  that  originates 
with,  and  grows  out  of,  Okio.  And  since  the  name  Shijo  is  so 
generally  identified  with  the  total  movement,  both  in  Japan  and  in 
Europe,   it   seems   best  to   adopt  it. 

While  the  composition  of  the  Goshun-Keibun  school  is  much  like 
that  of  Okio,  its  execution  is  a  little  softer  and  more  blended.  Okio's 
dry,  often  crumbly,  even-breadthed  outline  touch  hardly  appears  in 
it.  Its  tones  are  more  liquid,  its  colours  more  tender.  On  fine  leaves 
it  was  more  of  a  wedge-shaped  stroke.  In  broad  leaves  it  gives  gradation 
even  in  single  broad  washes.  This  is  its  peculiar  technique,  developed 
somewhat  further  than  Okio's,  to  so  charge  diflFerent  sides  of  the  brush  with 
inks  of  varying  tone  or  with  distinct  colours,  as  to  be  able  to  execute  a 
transition  and  a  blending  with  a  stroke  consisting  or  a  single  sweep. 

M   2 


174     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

Goshun's  careful  landscapes  are  of  especial  beauty.  His  bamboo  stems 
make  a  simple  but  very  beautiful  composition.  Keibun  is  especially  happy 
in  his  bird  and  flower  pieces,  whose  leaves  seem  fairly  to  pulsate  with 
modulated  tint.  Toyohiko  has  left  us  a  finely-painted  deer  under  a  pine- 
tree  upon  a  two-panelled  screen  in  Boston. 

Of  Okio's  direct  pupils  there  is  a  great  host,  all  celebrated  men  with 
stroncy  individualities.  Kirei  is  the  arch-impressionist  ;  Genki  excels  in 
developing  Okio's  greys  ;  Okio's  son,  Ozui,  has  left  us  a  beautiful  Arashi- 
yama  landscape,  at  Boston  ;  Rosetsu  has  always  some  humorous  antic 
phase,  even  in  the  expression  of  his  puppies  ;  Taichu  became  a  photo- 
graphically minute  landscape  realist  ;  Chokken  painted  birds  and  animals 
in  a  most  suave  style,  especially  fine  with  snow.  Among  the  greatest 
is  Tetsuzan,  who  worked  equally  well  in  all  subjects,  though  his  sleeping 
fox  at  Boston  is  an  exceptional  masterpiece.  Here,  the  blurring  of  the 
red  tail  thrown  far  toward  the  spectator  in  foreground  enlargement,  and 
the  focussing  of  the  eye  upon  the  distant  head,  both  by  the  unique 
darkness  and  sharpness  of  the  touches  there,  and  by  the  clear  hair  lines 
of  the  weeds,  give  an  exposition  of  modern  optical  truth  combined  with 
aesthetic  laws  of  centralization  which  goes  far  beyond  what  our  modern 
photography  has  yet  introduced  into  our  art.  Toko,  the  great  specialist 
as  a  fish  painter,  merits  special  attention,  though  the  limitation  and  same- 
ness of  his  work  makes  him  a  little  monotonous.  Nangaku  is  the  chief 
pupil  who  is  greatest  as  a  figure  painter,  and  he  is  best,  not  in  his 
Chinese  ladies,  but  in  his  Kioto  Ukiyoye  drawing  of  belles  and  tea- 
house girls. 

Of  this  same  first  generation  of  followers,  though  not  so  closely  the 
personal  pupils  of  Okio,  must  be  specially  mentioned  two  men  who  have 
become,  in  spite  of  Okio's  prestige,  Japan's  two  best  known  animal 
painters,  and  both  of  whom  have  founded  art  schools.  The  better  known 
of  these  in  Europe  and  America  is  Sosen,  the  famous  painter  of  monkeys. 
Fine  specimens  are  in  all  the  world's  collections.  Sosen  vibrated  between 
two  extremes  of  execution,  a  minute  style  on  silk  in  which  he  drew 
every  hair  of  the  coloured  fur,  and  a  rough  style  in  which  he  relied 
upon  bibulous  paper  to  give  the  effect  of  fur  by  soaking  up  the 
broadly-placed  washes  of  a  large  brush.  Both  of  these  styles  are  per- 
fectly exhibited  by  specimens  in  Boston.  Naturally  artists  prefer  the 
rougher  style.  But  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  Sosen  could 
paint  only  monkeys.      He    did    all    kinds    of  furry    animals,    especially 


Deer.     By  Ganki 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART   IN    KIOTO  175 

cats,  rats,  dogs,  foxes  and  deer  ;  and  he  was  peculiarly  fine  in  birds, 
Mr.  Freer's  peacock  in  colours  and  the  fine  pea-hen  in  glossy  ink  at 
Boston  being  notable  examples.  Sosen  also  occasionally  painted  pure 
landscape,  and  very  rarely  figures. 

The  other  animal  painter,  and  founder  of  the  special  Kioto  school, 
IS  Ganku.  He,  like  Goshun,  was  already  a  noted  worker  in  another 
style,  the  pure  Nagasaki  Chinese  style  of  Nanping,  before  he  fell 
under  Okio's  all-dissolving  Influence.  Even  then  he  refused  to  follow 
Okio's  touch  in  detail,  developing  for  himself  a  rough  vigorous  style 
much  more  renowned  than  Goshun's.  It  consists  of  a  kind  of  crumbly 
woolly  texture,  which  is  suggested  by  the  very  strongest  of  later  Chinese 
work.  It  is  much  more  pictorial  and  grandly  spaced  than  bunjinga. 
Ganku  also  painted  all  subjects,  being  very  strong  in  animals,  landscape 
and  figures.  His  figures,  however,  are  a  little  too  much  like  modern 
Chinese,  and  monotonous.  His  magnificent  peacock  in  colours  in  silk 
Is  one  of  the  greatest  treasures  of  Mr.  NIshimura's  collection  in  Kioto. 
There  is  a  fine  study  on  paper,  for  a  painting  In  similar  style,  in  Boston. 
But  his  greatest  forte  was  animals,  and  especially  tigers.  Ganku's 
tiger  is  almost  as  specialized  a  celebrity  as  Sosen's  monkey.  There  are 
several  fine  tigers  In  Boston.  But  Ganku's  greatest  masterpiece  is 
undoubtedly  his  elaborate  painting  on  a  large  silk  of  two  Japanese 
sacred  deer,  which  was  one  of  the  greatest  treasures  of  my  collection  that 
went  to  Boston.  I  suppose  this  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  animal 
paintings  of  the  whole  world.  There  is  a  European  solidity  of  finish 
and  motion  about  It  that  Oklo  did  not  attempt.  The  composition  is  also 
most  beautiful,  forming  a  kind  of  letter  S  through  the  two  connecting 
heads.  A  fine  summer  landscape  shines  In  mist  behind.  The  fur  is 
broadly  painted  In  quiet  colour.  Here  we  come  into  comparison  with 
the  best  of  Rubens,  Jordaens  and  Paul  Potter,  and  with  the  animal 
drawings  by  Diirer.  I  acquired  the  work  In  1879  ^^om  a  picture 
dealer  who  had  never  heard  the  name  of  Ganku,  and  knew  not  how 
to  place  him.  This  picture  was  shown  by  me  several  times  In  the 
yearly  loan  exhibitions  of  the  nobles'  art  club  In  Uyeno,  from  1882 
onward — It  was  borrowed  for  the  Emperor,  and  Mr.  Nishimura  tried 
to    make    a    cut   velvet    copy    of  It. 

Among  the  third  generation  of  the  Shijo  school,  which  we  may 
consider  to  have  reached  Its  culmination  about  1840  or  1850,  were 
many   noted    names.       Of  Goshun's  pupils,   Keibun,  Gito  and  Toyohiko, 


176     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

and  of  Keibun's,  Seiki,  Giokuho  and  Hoyen,  are  all  great  painters. 
A  specially  fine  and  elaborate  Giokuho  in  Boston  shows  how  flower 
stems  could  be  so  painted  as  to  grade  from  side  to  side  (by  varied  brush 
charging),  and  from  end  to  end  (by  varied  pressure),  with  only  a  single 
executive  sweep  of  the  arm.  Tetsuzan's  son,  Mori  Kwansai,  lived 
late  to  modern  times,  and  I  visited  the  dear  old  gentleman  at  his  house 
in  Kioto  before  his  death  in  the  late  eighties.  Ganku's  son-in-law, 
Renzan,  and  his  sons,  Gantei  and  Ganrio,  were  good  artists,  especially 
the  first,  who  has  left  us  many  birds  and  animals  and  landscapes.  But 
among  these  Kioto  painters  of  1840  is  a  group  who  made  such  a 
special  showing  in  original  work  that  I  feel  like  classing  them  together 
as  the  "  four  landscapists,"  and  of  devoting  a  special  word  to  each. 

One  of  the  four  was  a  pupil  of  Ganku,  Yokoyama  Kwazan,  whose 
"  peach-garden  "  on  silk,  and  the  wanderings  of  Tokiwa  Gozen,  the 
mother  of  Yoshitsune  in  snow,  on  a  screen,  are  important  pieces  in 
Boston.  He  has  also  left  beautiful  coloured  paintings  of  maples  at 
Takawo  and  Tofukuji. 

Another  is  Ippo,  the  greatest  pupil  of  Tetsuzan.  His  breadth  of 
execution  and  daring  square  touch  make  him  almost  worthy  to  be 
called  the  "  Sesshu  of  Shijo."  It  is  like  a  photograph,  or  an  American 
student's  school  work  in  two  tones.  There  are  many  fine  pieces  in 
Boston,   including  a  pine   tree   in   snow. 

The  third  of  the  great  landscapists  of  1840  is  Bunrin,  the  greatest 
pupil  of  Toyohiko.  His  style  is  heavier  and  more  muddy — more 
European  perhaps — than  that  of  other  members  of  the  school  ;  but  he 
reaches  great  atmospheric  effects,  and  is  specially  fond  of  snow  and 
mist.  The  great  bank  of  Arashiyama  pines  in  snow  is  owned  by 
Mr.  Freer. 

The  fourth  is  Nishiyama  Hoyen,  who,  though  trained  in  Kioto 
under  Keibun,  did  the  greater  part  of  his  work  in  the  neighbouring 
commercial  city  of  Osaka.  He  was  the  last  great  all-round  artist  of 
Shijo,  living  down  to  about  1865,  and  being  very  exquisite  in  landscape, 
birds  and  flowers,  and  human  figures.  But  perhaps  he  is  most 
conspicuous  in  landscape.  There  are  some  sixty  or  seventy  fine  pieces 
of  his  work  in  the  Boston  museum,  most  of  them  belonging  to  the 
Bigelow  collection.  Dr.  W.  S.  Bigelow  made  a  specialty  of  collecting 
Hoyens  in  Japan  between  1882  and  1889.  The  delicacy  and  precision 
of   his    line    work  and    the    melting     tone    of    his    colours    are    beautiful 


Fine  Study  of  Flowers    Foliage 
AND  Birds.     By  tiiokuho. 
Fenollosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston. 


Painting.     School  of  Matahei. 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    KIOTO  177 

beyond  stating,  but  he  has  not  the  masculine  vigour  of  conception 
that  we  find  in  Okio.  But  the  sweetness  and  purity  of  natural  effects 
in  the  Shijo  manner  can  no  further  go.  His  greatest  figure  piece  in 
Boston  is  a  Kwannon  in  white,  seated  cross-legged  on  a  rock  hv  the  sea. 
This  shows  the  almost  unique  power  in  a  Shijo  artist  to  take  a 
religious  subject  well  worked  by  great  Chinese  and  Japanese  artists, 
from  Godoshi  to  Tanyu,  and  produce  an  entirely  new  version  of  it, 
and  adequate  to  the  purity,  if  not  to  the  grandeur  of  the  subject.  One 
of  the  most  lovely  flower  pieces  is  the  elaborate  branch  of  young  pink 
plum  blossom,  upon  which  perch  two  little  birds  in  black  and  yellow. 
There  are  four  of  his  Fujiyama  landscapes  in  Boston,  of  which  the 
one  that  shows  Enoshima  and  the  curving  beach  in  the  foreground, 
and  sunset  clouds  shrouding  the  mountain  in  tinted  gold  mists,  belongs 
to  the  Fenollosa  collection.  Such  coloured  atmospheric  effects  have 
been  rare  in  modern  Japanese  art.  In  his  earlier  and  often  rougher 
works  on  paper  we  have  wonderfully  vigorous  rustic  impressions,  as 
of  an  old  farmer's  hut  with  high  straw  ricks  on  the  great  plain  behind 
Osaka.  This  is  like  a  contemporary  charcoal  drawing  by  Millet.  In 
effects  of  rain  upon  soaking  foliage  his  tone  is  purer  than  Bunrin's. 
Finally,  in  symbolism,  rare  among  Shijo  artists,  Hoyen  has  left  us  his 
misty  sun  producing  the  first  rice  plants  from  chaos.  We  may  regard 
this  as  his  way  of  expressing  "The  Creation  of  Man,"  through  human 
food.      Its  exquisiteness  of  drawing  and  tenderness  of  colour  are  charming. 

Of  the  fourth  generation  of  Shijo  few  artists  attained  great  fame. 
The  weakness  of  imitation  was  upon  them.  Many  are  still  living, 
and  some  working,  in  Kioto  and  Osaka  to-day.  Hoyen's  son,  Shuikei, 
I  knew  intimately  at  Osaka.  Kubota  Beisen  is  personally  known  in 
America.  But  Bairei,  the  best  pupil  of  Bunrin,  also  a  pupil  of 
Raisho,  is  known  the  whole  world  over,  if  only  for  his  flower  books 
printed  in  colours.  Bairei  was  a  dear  friend  of  mine  for  many  years 
in  Kioto.  Kawabata  Giokosho,  spoken  of  in  the  next  chapter,  is  a  pupil 
of  Raisho.  Kishi  Chikundo,  the  adopted  son  of  Renzan,  painted  the 
great  tiger  shown  at  Chicago  in   1893.     He  died  only  a  few  years  ago. 

Of  the  fifth  generation  we  have  one  really  great  man,  Takenouchi 
Seiho,  still  young,  pupil  of  Bairei,  and  who  is  the  most  successful  teacher 
in  the  art  school  at  Kioto. 

It  would  not  do  to  close  this  chapter  without  a  word  more  upon  the 
splendid  efl^ect  this  Shijo  School  has  produced  upon  Kioto  design,  especially 


178     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND  JAPANESE   ART 

in  the  patterns  for  stuffs.  Even  to-day,  much  of  the  finest  designing  done 
for  the  splendid  gold-shot  brocades,  manufactured  for  the  imperial  house- 
hold, or  shown  in  the  great  Tokio  shop  of  Mitsui,  is  made  from  Shijo 
drawings.  A  large  part  of  the  great  designs  for  embroidery  and  cut 
velvets,  done  by  Nishimura,  Kawashima  and  lida,  have  come  out  of 
the  studios  of  Burin  and  Chikudo.  We  show  here  a  typical 
example  of  a  Shijo-Kioto  stencil,  among  the  hundreds  of  thousands  from 
which  the  finely-printed  cotton  and  silk  stuffs  used  by  the  people  all  over 
Kioto  have  been  stamped.  The  more  special  process  of  Yuzen  dyeing 
has  also  used  Shojo  design.  The  whole  life  of  Japan,  in  so  far  as  its 
industries  centred  about  Kioto,  has  been  enormously  enriched  by  this 
great  line  of  work  that  Okio  had  the  genius  to  originate.  It  gives  us  an 
absolutely  new  and  fertile  species,  though  late-sprung  from  the  great 
genus  of  Chino-Japanese  art. 


TYPICAL    STKNXIL    DESIGN. 


■  /  4  \ 


Plum  Branch  and  Nightingales.     By  Hoyen. 
FenoUosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston. 


Fuji  from   lixosHiMA.      l')\-  Hoyrn. 
Fenollosa-Weld  Collection. 


Farm  Huts  and  Well-sweep.     By  Hoycn. 
Fenollosa-Weld  Collection,  Boston. 


Chapter    XVII. 

MODERN  PLEBEIAN   ART  IN  YEDO. 

Ukiyo-ye. 
Prints — Illustration — Genre. 

BUT  we  have  not,  even  yet,  fully  exhausted  the  great  branch  varieties 
of  Asiatic  art  that  have  grown  out  of  the  Japanese  stem.  There 
still  remains  one  great  school  of  popular  art  which  has  covered 
portions  of  the  three  last  centuries  with  genre  studies  of  the  life  of  the 
masses,  most  important  both  for  history  and  for  aesthetics.  It  is  this  school 
only  which  European  and  American  students  as  yet  know  much  about, 
because  its  work  has  been  so  widely  disseminated  in  printed  sheets  and 
books.  Even  in  the  1850's,  immediately  after  the  opening  of  Japan,  many 
examples  were  exported  to  America,  London  and  Paris  ;  and  writers  such 
as  Jarves,  and  artists  such  as  Lafarge,  Fran^^ois  Millet  and  Whistler  eagerly 
studied  the  amazing  revelations  of  power  along  the  very  lines  in  which 
they  were  pressing  their  own  innovations.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to 
say  that  all  the  new  phases  of  European  art  down  through  the  last  fifty 
years,  including  all  phases  of  "  Impressionism,"  have  been  influenced 
more  or  less  strongly  by  Japanese  Ukiyoye.  Whistler,  while  by  no 
means  a  slave  to  it,  did  not  pretend  to  conceal  the  influence. 

Many  misconceptions  have  arisen,  however,  among  foreigners  with 
regard  to  this  great  school  of  Ukiyoye.  It  has  been  declared  to  be  the 
only  pure  form  of  Japanese  art  untainted  by  Chinese.  This  ignores  the 
fact  that  the  whole  Tosa  art  of  the  third  period,  and  the  aristocratic  art  of 
the  Korin  school  in  the  fifth,  are  purely  Japanese  in  style  and  subject.  It 
is  also  held  that  this  genre  art  of  Yedo  is  the  only  form  of  Asiatic  art  ever 
developed  by  the  common  people.  That  this  is  not  true  can  be  seen  by 
pointing  to  the  Shijo  school  of  Kioto  and  Osaka.  Again  it  is  often  made 
out  that  this  Ukiyoye  is  primarily  a  school  of  printed  art,  and  is  treated  as 


i8o     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

if  it  included  all  book  illustration.  The  truth  is  that,  on  the  one  hand,  it 
is  as  much  primarily  a  school  of  painting  as  is  the  Shijo  ;  and  that,  on  the 
other,  much  of  Japanese  book  illustration  belongs  to  Shijo  art  and  to  the 
work  of  the  Kano  pupils  of  Tanyu.  This  is  only  another  illustration  of 
the  aesthetic  confusion  that  issues  from  classifying  through  industrial 
methods.  Any  school  of  design  may  use  the  method  of  printing,  but  that 
which  makes  it  an  individual  school  is  its  manner  of  drawing,  spacing, 
spotting  and  colouring. 

It  is  true,  however,  in  spite  of  these  misconceptions  and  over-statements, 
that  the  Ukiyoye  school  of  Japanese  design  is  foremost  of  those  which  in 
modern  days  have  taken  Japanese  life  for  its  motive  ;  that  it  is  peculiarly 
the  art  of  the  common  people  of  Japan's  largest  city  ;  and  that  Japanese 
colour-printing  derives  its  most  telling  experiments  from  Yedo  popular 
artists.  Yet,  though  the  printing  may  be  the  most  striking  novelty  in 
Ukiyoye,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  would  still  furnish  us  a  most 
original  school  of  painting,  even  if  printing  had  never  been  invented. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Tokugawa  art  is  hopelessly  divided  into 
two  water-tight  compartments,  the  art  of  the  soldiers,  and  the  art  of  the 
people.  It  was  indeed  in  the  Shogun's  great  capital  city  of  Yedo  that  this 
duality  grew  to  its  strongest  opposition  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
centuries.  The  two  antagonistic  parties  were  the  Kano  and  the  Ukiyoye. 
And  yet  the  Ukiyoye,  in  its  earlier  phases,  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
is  not  at  all  characterized  by  this  opposition,  since  it  grew  out  of  Kano 
art,  and  it  worked  at  Kioto.  These  many  phases  of  it  make  its  history 
a  somewhat    complex  thing  to  state. 

To  understand  fully  the  origin  ot  the  movement  which  we  now  call 
Ukiyoye,  we  must  go  as  far  back  as  the  Kano  school  of  late  Ashikaga  art, 
described  in  Chapter  XIII.  We  saw  there  that  a  certain  thin  stream  of 
Japanese  style  and  subject  in  art  had  trickled  down  through  the  chinks  in 
the  prevailing  Chinese-ism  of  Ashikaga,  linking  the  ancient  school  of  Tosa 
that  had  originated  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  with  the 
Tokugawa  revivals  of  the  seventeenth.  We  saw  that  the  link  took  the 
form  of  a  marriage  between  Mitsuhisa,  the  daughter  of  Tosa  Mitsunobu 
— last  legitimate  descendant  of  the  ancient  house — and  Kano  Motonobu  ; 
from  which  union  of  the  two  schools  sprang  a  more  or  less  continuous 
translation  of  Tosa  subjects  into  terms  of  Kano  penmanship  which 
lasted  from  Motonobu  to  Shosen.  A  great  historical  work  in  many 
rolls,    and   in   full    Tosa    style    and  colouring,    which    had    been    ordered 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  i8r 

by  the  Shogun's  Court  from  Kano  Isen,  Seiscn  and  Shoscn,  was  still 
unfinished  at  the  abdication  in  i868.  We  have  seen  that  Tanyu  himself 
was  often  most  happy  in  Japanese  subjects,  Tosa-ish  or  realistic.  But 
all  this  phase  of  Kano  art  did  not  quite  constitute  Ukiyoye.  In 
most  cases  the  Kano  subjects  were  still  the  old  Court  scenes  of  Kujiwara, 
or  the  military  tragedy  of  the  Heike,  or  the  narrations  of  a  temple's 
foundation  (Engi).  Ukiyoye  is  peculiarly  a  study  of  contemporary  life, 
and  that,  too,  of  the  more  fashionable  or  pleasurable  side  of  the 
popular  life.  The  very  name  "  Pictures  of,  or  the  Art  of,  the  Floating 
World  "  means  that  it  deals  with  transitory  and  trivial  phases,  contrasted 
in  Buddhist  phrase  with  the  permanent  life  of  moral  idealism. 

The  lack  of  moral  purpose  in  Chinese  subject  had  crept  in  with  the 
second  Kano  style,  of  Yeitoku,  in  building  his  gorgeous  figure  decorations 
in  gold  and  deep  colours  for  the  walls  of  Hideyoshi's  palaces.  It  only 
required  that,  as  a  relief  from  the  monotony  of  Chinese  Court  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  the  Kanos  should  occasionally  turn  to  another  source  of 
gorgeous  gaiety — namely,  the  life  of  the  dancing  girls,  the  wrestlers,  and  the 
humorous  contretemps  between  the  mighty  samurai  class  and  these  vulgar 
pleasure-givers  with  whom  they  mingled  "on  the  sly."  It  was  probably 
not  until  after  the  death  of  Yeitoku,  even  after  the  accession  of  lyeyasu, 
and  before  the  new  Yedo  dynasty  had  acquired  power  to  curb  the  dissipa- 
tions of  Kioto,  left  to  itself  without  a  military  head,  that  excursion  into  this 
new  line  of  Japanese  subject  was  often  tried.  Yet  pure  examples  from 
Yeitoku's  pen  will  probably  be  found.  The  difference  between  these 
Hideyoshi  and  post-Hideyoshi  experiments  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Kano-ish-Tosa  persistence  and  the  Tosa  revival  on  the  other,  lies  as  much 
in  technique  as  in  subject.  It  was  the  use  of  large  figures  for  mural  work, 
as  large  as  the  great  screen  effigies  of  Chinese  Emperors  and  their  Courts, 
and  of  the  same  deep-glazed  colouring  over  a  gold  ground.  The  lines 
and  proportions  of  the  drawing  are  essentially  Chinese— Yeitoku-Chinese. 
The  intense  rich  colouring  of  the  Chinese  lords  forms  a  splendid  medium 
to  render  the  equally  rich  and  gold-shot  fabrics  of  the  Japanese  dancing 
girls'  robes.  The  patterns  outlined  are  large  and  heavy,  not  unlike  some 
Chinese  patterns  ;  indeed  our  knowledge  of  Hideyoshi  design  in  popular 
costume  depends  chiefly  upon  these  rare  paintings. 

If,  then,  we  can  imagine  Kano  Sanraku,  about  the  year  1600, 
deliberately  replacing  the  courtiers  of  Taiso  of  Tang  upon  his  walls 
and    screens,    with    the    tall,    graceful,    moving    figures   of  contemporary 


1 82     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND   JAPANESE    ART 

dancing  girls,  using  the  same  suave  Kano  outline,  and  the  same  deep 
lapis-lazuli  blues,  malachite  greens,  and  the  placing  of  cochineal  car- 
mines over  orange  vermilions,  and  backing  the  screen  with  great 
booming  clouds  of  gold,  and  touching  the  threads  of  the  dress  patterns 
with  the  gold  paint  formerly  reserved  by  Yeitoku  for  Chinese  dragons, 
we  shall  discern  the  real  beginnings  of  Ukiyoye.  It  should  be  noticed 
that  the  movement  is  exactly  contemporary  with  the  similar  beginnings, 
out  of  Yeitoku  palace  decoration  genus,  of  the  aristocratic  school  of 
Koyetsu.  Often  the  early  Kano  Ukiyoye  figures  became  smaller,  between 
1600  and  1620,  like  the  smaller  figures  upon  their  Chinese  screens. 
Sometimes  they  are  found  even  on  silk  kakemonos  or  on  fans.  By 
1620  there  was  yet  no  separate  thought  or  name  for  two  diverging 
movements,  the  girl-painting  in  Yeitoku  colouring  of  Sanraku,  and  the 
flower-painting  in  Yeitoku  colouring  of  Koyetsu  ;  the  only  difference 
being  that  Sanraku  was  more  relying  upon  the  realistic  impression  that 
he  could  get  from  his  living  world,  and  Koyetsu  more  and  more  relying 
upon  being  able  to  translate  his  subjects  into  a  kind  of  impressionism 
suggested  by  old  Tosa.  "  Kano-ish  Realism,"  "Tosa-ish  Impressionism  " 
— these  terms  well  express  the  germs  of  the  coming  variation.  Following 
Sanraku,  the  sons  and  other  pupils  of  Yeitoku,  especially  Mitsuoki, 
took  up  this  fresh  Kioto  genre,  and  have  left  us  splendid  gold  screens 
that  differ  from  Yeitoku's  only  in  the  new  subject.  It  is  in  Mr.  Freer's 
collection  that  we   have  the   chief  chance  to  study  this  peculiar  phase. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Sanraku  pieces  is  the  set  of  four 
sliding  doors,  directly  from  a  wall,  with  graceful  Japanese  figures  of 
women  and  children.  The  pine-trees  are  pure  Kano  of  the  Yeitoku 
type.  In  this  case  there  is  almost  no  gold.  The  tallness  of  the 
figures,  like  Yeitoku's  Chinese  women,  and  the  excessive  grace  of 
their  lines  of  curve  (to  say  nothing  of  the  colouring),  are  all  utterly 
unlike  anything  to  be  found  in  Tosa,  ancient  or  modern.  Notice  the 
large  simple  dress-pattern,  as  of  the  wistaria  branches.  A  very  beautiful 
and  more  careful  kakemono  upon  silk,  of  a  Japanese  lady  seated  upon 
a  Chinese  high-backed  chair,  is  in  the  Fenollosa  collection  at  Boston. 
It  is  signed  with  Sanraku's  name.  Here  the  broad,  heavily  coloured 
pattern  of  the  waves  and  cherry  blossoms  is  in  pure  Kano  school,  and 
shows  exactly  the  Kano  root  of  Koyetsu.  The  lines  are  still  almost 
graceful  to  excess.  Of  Kano  Mitsunobu  the  great  six-panel  screen 
with  gold  clouding  showing  a  Japanese  interior  decorated  in  the  Yeitoku 


A   PANEL   FROM   THE    FAMOUS 
HIKON^:   SCREF.N 

BY    MAT  AH  EI 


1 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  183 

manner,  and  very  tall  girls  and  children,  is  a  splendid  example.  Here 
the  figures  are  not  so  graceful,  inclining  to  stoutness  at  the  waist  ; 
but  the  strange  attitudes  come  evidently  from  close  realistic  study. 
The  dress  patterns  run  into  a  still  more  violent  cloud  and  wave  curve, 
being  of  deep  and  startling  colour.  The  doing  of  the  hair  into  great 
twisted  puffs  at  the  top  of  the  head,  though  hanging  down  the  hack, 
is  characteristic.  The  tallest  figure  is  about  four  feet  in  height.  The 
face  of  the  young  girl  in  purple  is  Egyptian.  Though  unsigned,  this  is 
surely  to  be  attributed  to  Mitsunobu  after  comparison  with  his  Chinese 
screens,  and  some  of  his  small  signed  kakemono.  The  use  of  snow- 
covered  Fuji  in  the  house  decoration  is  interesting,  as  a  forerunner  of  the 
treatment  of  the  same  subject  by  Korin  100  years  later.  The  walls  of  the 
inner  room  have  ink  landscape  decoration,  also  of  the  style  of  Mitsunobu. 

Up  to  this  point,  doubtless,  the  name  of  Ukiyoy^  and  the  thought  of 
a  separate  school  had  never  occurred.  It  was  only  when  a  new  artist, 
Iwasa  Matahei,  basing  his  style  upon  the  Kano  work  of  the  Yeitoku 
school,  and  upon  the  Japanese  figures  of  Sanraku  in  particular,  made  it  his 
life-work  to  treat  these  subjects  only,  and  to  develop  them  into  a  manner 
peculiarly  his  own,  that  Ukiyoye,  as  a  consciously  independent  movement, 
can  be  said  to  begin. 

About  this  obscure  artist,  Matahei,  an  immense  amount  has  been 
written.  He  has  become  a  subject  of  Japanese  legends,  entering  into 
drama  and  romance  ;  and  his  work  has  been  confused  with  that  of  a  host 
of  contemporaries.  We  cannot  go  here  into  the  unravelling  of  these 
extreme  views  ;  ranging  from  the  European  acceptance  of  any  rich  colour 
and  gold  girl-painting  done  between  1620  and  1680  as  an  unquestionable 
Matahei,  down  to  the  recent  thesis  defended  in  the  Japanese  journals  that 
we  have  no  proof  that  such  an  artist  as  Matahei  ever  lived.  We  can  trace 
in  existing  specimens  at  least  two  great  movements  in  this  Ukiyoye  of  the 
seventeenth  century — one  apparently  derived  from  Sanraku,  and  one  from 
Mitsunobu  ;  and  evidently  at  least  half-a-dozen  Individuals  were  at  work 
in  each.  Now  among  those  individualities  we  can  identify  one  so 
commanding,  so  developing  the  graceful  style  of  Sanraku  toward  graceful 
realism,  that  we  can  say  this  individual — whether  his  name  was  Smith,  or 
Kato,  or  Matahei — did  exactly  this  very  thing  for  which  Matahei  has  the 
fame  ;    we  shall  therefore  call  him  Matahei. 

Matahei's  most  celebrated  piece  of  work  is  the  great  six-panelled  screen 
called  by  all  Japanese  "The  HIkone  Biobu  "  (screen), because  it  was  the  great 


184     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND   JAPANESE   ART 

treasure  of  the  daimio  of  HIkone  Castle  on  Lake  Biwa.  It  was  sent  to  the 
Exhibition  of  1900  at  Paris  by  the  Japanese  Government,  which  is  said 
to  have  insured  it  for  30,000  yen.  It  represents  graceful  figures  of  men 
and  girls  and  children  in  rich  colours  upon  a  gold  ground,  seated  upon  the 
mats  in  utterly  unrestrained  Japanese  attitudes.  In  the  centre  of  one 
screen  an  old  blind  musician  is  giving  a  lesson  in  samisen  playing  to  two 
girls,  while  a  party  of  young  people  near  by  play  a  game  of  Go.  Behind 
those  two  groups  a  beautiful  landscape  screen,  evidently  by  Kano 
Motonobu,  is  unfolded.  Another  group  shows  us  tall  slender  girls — like 
those  of  Sanraku — walking,  while  a  gay  young  samurai  leans  in  a  most 
unconventional  attitude  upon  his  long  sword.  This  shows  us  a  tendency 
to  dissipation  that  may  well  become  the  degeneration  of  the  whole  buke 
class,  if  not  checked.  The  drawing  of  the  drapery  is  less  stiff  and  more 
realistic  than  Sanraku's.  Another  screen  of  identically  the  same  artist  is 
a  low  six-panel  one  of  gold  ground,  belonging  to  Mr.  Freer.  Here, 
also,  there  is  depicted  an  open  Motonobu  landscape  screen  behind  the 
principal  group.  The  exquisite  rendering  of  the  Motonobu  lines  and  tints 
shows  what  a  fundamental  study  of  Kano  art  Matahei  must  have  made, 
and,  at  a  time  when  the  eclecticism  of  Koi  was  throwing  attention  upon  old 
masters.  We  should  therefore  place  these  works  somewhere  about  1630 
or  1 640.  The  lines  of  the  young  girl  seated  upon  the  bench  with  drawn- 
up  knees  are  among  the  most  graceful  in  all  Japanese  art.  The  female 
coiffure,  with  a  great  puffed  brush  behind,  shows  a  later  manner  than 
the  top  coils  of  Mitsunobu.  That  in  his  last  days  Matahei  went  over 
to  a  still  finer  realism,  discarding  the  gold  surroundings,  and  gave  us 
great  figures  of  girls  and  children  in  more  angular  touch,  and  in  low 
silvery  tones  more  like  those  of  Koyetsu  and  Sanraku,  is  almost  certain. 

Matahei's  claim  to  have  founded  Ukiyoye,  taking,  as.  it  is  said,  the  name 
upon  himself,  is  confirmed  by  the  host  of  pupils,  mostly  unnamable 
to-day,  whom  he  left.  It  is  their  work,  and  the  work  of  contemporaries, 
in  part  distinguishable,  but  without  assigned  names,  which  fills  in  the 
gap  between  1650  and  the  work  of  Moronobu  in  1680.  It  is  probably 
Matahei's  son  who  is  figured  in  the  first  plate  of  my  large  book  on 
Ukiyoye.  Another  example  of  the  day  is  Mr.  Freer's  exquisite  little 
painting  of  a  showman  exhibiting  a  dancing  monkey  to  some  girls. 
Many  of  these  unsigned  paintings  are  to  be  found  in  every  collection, 
but  none  reach  to  the  truth  and  grace  of  Matahei's  drawing. 
Another    artist    who    has    been    confused    with    our    Iwasa    is    a     second 


School  of  Matahei 


Page  of  Book  Illustrations  by  Moroncbt 


Example  of  Otsuve. 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  185 

man  of  the  same  name,  Matahei  or  Matabci,  who  worked  in  hxhizen 
at  a  later  date,  but  one  which  overhips  Matahei.  His  work  is 
characterized  by  much  more  awkward  drawing,  and  longer  and  more 
formless  and  even  slighter  Tosa-ish  faces.  The  cheeks  and  chin  have  a 
swollen  appearance.  The  colour  is  Yeitoku-ish,  but  of  that  later  period 
when  it  is  striving  to  hold  itself  against  the  new  Tanyu  manner,  as  in  Kano, 
Sansetsu  and  Yeino.  After  Yeino,  about  1650,  the  last  trace  of  the  Yei- 
toku  colouring  goes  out,  except  in  Ukiyoye  itself.  Mr.  Freer  has  a  fine 
wrestling  scene  by  this  secondary  Matahei.  By  1770  the  Yeitoku  colouring 
has  nearly  reduced  itself  in  range  to  a  somewhat  hard  green,  orange  and  gold. 

The  so-called  "  Otsu-ye  "  was  an  attempt  to  cheapen  and  popularize 
this  new  school  of  painting  by  issuing  editions  of  rough  sketches  many 
times  repeated.  A  firm,  rapid  outline  was  drawn  in  ink  on  all  the  sheets, 
and  then  the  spaces  were  filled  in  with  a  few  touches  of  wash  in  green, 
orange  and  yellow.  They  were  sold  among  the  poorer  people  for  a  very 
small  sum,  and  are  evidently  the  precursors  of  the  single  sheet  prints. 
Because  Matahei  is  supposed  to  have  lived  for  a  time  in  the  city  of  Otsu, 
on  Lake  Biwa,  where  these  sketches  originated,  it  has  become  part  of  his 
legend  that  he  was  the  author  of  them.  Many  of  the  Otsu-ye  now  seen 
were  issued  as  late  as  1700  ;  but  the  earliest  forms  may  go  back  to  1660 
and  1670.  Japanese  dealers  to-day  frequently  attach  the  name  of  Matahei 
to  any  specimen  of  Otsu-ye,  thus  helping  to  confuse  a  confusing  subject. 

Though  Japanese  book  illustration  began  as  far  back  as  1608,  it  had 
at  first  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  Ukiyoye.  The  first  book  with 
wood-block  plates  in  outline  was  an  edition  of  the  Ise  IMonogatari,  with 
Japanese  figures  of  Tosa  costume  of  course,  yet  drawn  with  landscape 
accompaniment  in  the  pure  Kano  style  of  the  Yeitoku  branch.  Printed 
illustration  had  been  used  for  Chinese  books  for  several  centuries.  Here 
the  method  of  cutting  is  almost  pure  Chinese  of  Ming.  But  the  drawings 
look  as  if  they  had  been  made  by  Kano  Mitsunobu.  Many  other  books 
of  similar  style  were  issued  during  the  middle  of  the  century.  But  it 
was  not  till  about  1650  that  some  illustration  became  frankly  Ukiyoye, 
that  is,  reproducing  graceful,  and  generally  over-tall,  figures  of  girls  in 
outline,  and  drawn  in  the  style  of  the  Ukiyoye  painters  of  the  Matahei 
school.     Such  experiments  were  rare,   however,   before    1670. 

The  temporary  decay  of  Ukiyoye  after  1645  '^  accounted  for  by  the 
absence  of  a  clear  technique.  The  school  had  begun  with  the  technique  of 
the  Yeitoku  period  of  the   Kanos,  but  this  was   now  extinct  in  the  Kano 


1 86     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

world.  The  revolutionary  simplified  and  monochrome  art  of  Tanyu  had 
entirely  superseded  it  for  the  yashikiy  and  its  work  stood  for  the  principle 
of  return  to  Chinese  ethical  purity.  A  second  and  greater  period  of 
Ukiyoye  could  not  be  started  until  some  one  should  deign  to  treat  its 
subjects  with  the  new  handling  of  Tanyu  and  Tsunenobu.  This  was  done 
by  Hishikawa  Moronobu,  a  designer  for  Kioto  dress  patterns,  who  was 
well  versed  in  the  light,  nervous  crumbly  line  and  the  gay  thin  colouring  of 
the  new  Kano.  He  began  about  1670  to  develop  Ukiyoye  along  three 
parallel  lines — painting,  book  illustration  and  a  new  one,  single  sheet 
printing.  For  the  first  time  he  adopted  the  composition  of  the  Tosa 
panorama,  giving  gay  scenes  of  picnics,  street  festivals  and  groups  of  girls 
in  the  fashionable  quarter,  more  or  less  continuous  laterally,  and  crowded 
with  figures.  For  the  second  he  enlarged  the  figures  of  previous  Ukiyoye 
books,  and  in  very  vigorous  outline  (purely  Tanyu-ish)  placed  them  in 
complicated  groups,  like  the  paintings  of  his  makimono.  For  the  third  — 
an  experiment  fraught  with  incalculable  importance  to  future  art — he  took 
a  suggestion  from  the  small  editions  of  the  Otsu-ye  sketches  ;  and  now, 
with  his  improved  methods  of  wood-block  cutting  in  books  (quite  divorced 
from  Chinese  precedent),  he  tried  for  larger  and  cheaper  editions  in  which 
the  outline  should  be  printed  in  black.  For  this  new  work  he  took  larger 
sheets,  either  long  lateral  pieces  for  scenes  like  his  printed  panoramas, 
or  tall  rectangular  pieces  on  which  should  be  set  large,  carefully-drawn 
portraits,  mostly  of  women.  He  seems  to  be  conscious  that  the  beauty 
of  the  black-and-white  illustration  in  books  suggests  a  discarding  of  the 
Otsu-y^  bad  colouring  ;  but  precedent  was  stronger  than  aesthetics,  and  we 
frequently  find  even  his  single  sheets  touched  by  hand  in  places  with  little 
accenting  dabs  of  green  and  orange.  This  was  really,  though  probably 
unknown  to  him,  the  last  relic,  like  an  island  in  the  midst  of  the  Tanyu  sea, 
of  our  old  Hideyoshi  colouring.  In  his  later  days,  during  the  i68o's,  he 
generally  discards  even  this  last  trace  and  issues  pure  black-and-white 
prints    (Sumi-ye). 

Moronobu's  work  fell  at  an  epoch,  that  of  "  Genroku,"  from  1688  to 
1703,  but  which  really  should  include  also  "  Tenwa  "  and  "Teikio,"  from 
1 68 1.  This  was  the  day  when  population  and  arts  had  largely  been 
transferred  to  Yedo,  and  both  people  and  samurai  were  becoming  conscious 
of  themselves.  The  populace  of  the  new  great  city,  already  interested  in 
the  gay  pleasures  of  the  tea-houses  and  the  dancing  girls'  quarter,  were  just 
elaborating  a  new  organ   for  expression,   namely  the  vulgar  theatre,  with 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART   IN    YEDO  187 

plays  and  acting  adapted  to  their  intelligence.  They  had  just  caught  hold, 
too,  of  the  device  of  the  sensational  novel.  Now  here  was  an  army  of 
young  samurai  growing  up  in  the  neighbouring  squares,  who  were  just  on 
the  qui  vive  to  slip  out  into  these  nests  of  popular  fun.  For  the  time 
being  freedom  for  both  sides  was  in  the  air.  Anybody  could  say  or  do 
what  he  pleased.  Fashions  and  costumes  became  extravagant.  F.verybody 
joined  good-naturedly  in  the  street  dances.  It  was  like  a  world  of  college 
boys  out  on  a  lark  ;  to  speak  more  exactly,  it  had  much  resemblance  to 
the  gay,  roystering,  unconscious  mingling  of  lords  and  people  in  the 
Elizabethan  days  of  Shakespeare,  before  the  duality  of  puritan  and  cavalier 
divided  them.  Such  were  the  scenes  that  Moronobu  and  his  pupils 
painted  and  illustrated  at  first  in  Kioto,  afterwards  in  Yedo.  Flirtation 
between  samurai  and  girls  of  the  people  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  book 
illustration  of  about  1680.     The  large  single  sheet  of  a  girl  is  about  1688. 

The  aesthetic  value  of  Moronobu' s  work  is  high,  and  was  loved  by  the  sam- 
urai class,  from  whose  collections  it  has  largely  come  out  in  modern  times.  This 
was  both  because  it  was  in  the  popular  Kano  technique,  and  also  the  samuri 
were  Genroku  samurai.  Thus  the  art  is  not  yet  pure  Ukiyoye.  The  figures 
have  no  such  flexibility  as  Matahei's  ;  they  are  more  hard  and  doll  like.  But 
for  strength  in  black-and-white  illustration  his  work  has  not  been  surpassed. 

But  such  a  social  anomaly  as  the  Genroku  extravaganza  was  necessarily 
shortlived.  It  would  have  resulted  in  the  rout  of  all  lyeyasu's  plans  to 
regulate  the  morals  of  the  samurai  class.  Very  restricting  measures  were 
passed  to  separate  the  two  orders  of  society.  The  people  were  not  to  be 
interfered  with  in  their  own  dissipations  and  pleasures  ;  but  the  samurai 
must  keep  to  their  yashiki^  eschew  the  vulgar  theatre  and  content  them- 
selves with  No  plays,  buy  no  more  of  the  tempting  sheet  prints,  not  go  out 
skylarking  at  night,  but  devote  themselves  solely  to  military  exercises  and 
the  study  of  Confucius.  Thus  was  the  actual  and  conscious  wedge  driven 
in  between  the  yashiki  and  the  streets,  in  Yedo  especially  ;  and  thus  it  was 
that  from  about  the  year  1700  the  art  of  Ukiyoye  took  on  a  third  and 
decisive  form,  in  which  it  soon  cut  itself  away  from  class  relation  to  any 
Kano  canons,  and  produced  new  forms  suited  to  its  own  self-expression. 
The  three  lines  of  work  struck  out  by  Moronobu  need  not  be  added  to  ; 
but  the  methods  of  drawing,  spacing  and  colouring  would  now  take  on 
their  own  evolution,  and  though  there  are  some  mild  remains  of  it  in  Kioto, 
from  now  on  Ukiyoye  is  distinctively  the  art  of  the  Yedo  populace,  and 
single  sheet  printing  comes  to  the  fore  as  of  primary  importance. 

VOL.  ir.  ^  ' 


1 88     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

Nevertheless,  even  in  Yedo  itself,  the  new  lines  could  not  be  at  once 
tightly  drawn  ;  and  so  we  find  between  1700  and  1725  two  somewhat 
opposed  schools  of  Ukiyoy^,  one,  that  of  Miyagawa  Choshun,  confining  itself 
to  painting,  and  though  in  a  broader  form  and  with  freer  colouring,  being 
influenced  by  Kano  Tsunenobu.  Tsunenobu  himself  is  known  to  have 
sometimes  painted  Ukiyoye  on  the  sly  ;  and  Mr.  Freer  has  a  splendid 
screen  with  hundreds  of  people  done  in  the  richest  colouring,  probably  by 
Kano  Chikanobu.  The  hair  had  now  become  flat  on  the  top  of  the  head, 
but  pulled  down  in  a  narrow  sloping  tail  behind  the  neck.  Only  one  of 
Choshun's  numerous  school  did  prints — namely  Kwaigetsudo.  His 
lines  are  very  powerful,  whether  in  painting  or  printing,  often  going 
back  to  suggestions  of  the  old  Buddhist  "lead  lines,"  and  in  colouring 
to  hints  of  Koyetsu  and  Korin.  The  finest  large  sumi-yfe  print  which  I 
have  ever  seen  of  his  is  in  the  Bigelow  collection  at  Boston.  The  paint- 
ing of  a  small  girl,  seen  from  the  back,  is  from  Mr.  Freer's.  Here  the 
large  and  extravagant  design  of  dress  pattern  between  1705  and  1715  is 
well  shown.  Choshun's  pupil,  Shunsui,  who  took  the  name  of  Katsukawa 
about  1740,  carried  the  broad  pictorial  school  of  Ukiyoyfe,  confining 
itself  largely  to  representation  of  young  girls  in  home  life,  down  to  1760. 

The  other  school  of  Yedo  Ukiyoy^,  the  Torii,  gave  itself  up  frankly  to 
patronizing,  largely  through  prints,  the  separated  life  of  the  common  people, 
in  all  their  gaiety,  and  especially  scenes  from  plays  at  the  recently-developed 
theatre.  But  even  this  movement,  which  quite  cuts  itself  off  from  all  Kano 
precedent,  had  two  forms,  though  closely  connected — the  work  and  school 
of  Okumura  Masanobu,  who  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  the  portrayal  of 
romantic  scenes,  and  the  work  and  school  of  the  Torii  people,  who  devoted 
themselves  chiefly  to  violent  and  theatrical  scenes.  Both  did  interesting 
painting  and  both  illustrated  popular  books,  chiefly  scurrilous  novelettes  ; 
but  the  work  which  gives  them  great  fame  is  their  finest  development  of 
the  single  sheet  print  from  the  bare  outline  sumi-y^,  in  which  form 
Moronobu  had  left  it.  This  is  Ukiyoy5  in  its  proper  and  most  special 
sense ;  and  the  fame  of  these  prints  soon  sent  them  out  in  large  masses  to 
the  provinces,  particularly  in  the  North,  where  they  were  bought  up  by 
well-to-do  country  merchants  and  farmers,  who  chuckled  over  details  of 
the  capital's  gaiety,  the  place  where  they  intended  to  spend  their  own 
vacations.  And  thus  the  single  sheet  print  of  Ukiyoye  tended  to  become 
tor  the  detached  and  self-conscious  populace  of  Northern  Japan  what  our 
illustrated  newspapers  are  for  America. 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  189 

Masanobu,  like  Choshun,  grew  out  of  the  Moroiiohu  school  during 
Genroku.  Torii  Kiyonobu,  the  founder  of  his  line — and  Kiyomasu, 
his  friend,  life-companion,  and  probably  younger  brother — came  from  a 
different,  parallel  and  obscure  source,  the  atelier  of  Kondo  Kiyonobu  in 
Genroku,  whose  work  seems  to  have  descended  by  tradition  from  the  incipient 
Ukiyoy^  of  Kano  Mitsunobu,  without  passing  through  the  transforma- 
tions of  Matahei  and  Moronobu.  This  probably  accounts  for  the 
heaviness  of  his  colouring,  very  beautiful,  but  most  distasteful  to  the 
Yedo  samurai,  and  for  the  introduction  of  strong  hand-colouring  in 
pale  olive  and  solid  orange  (redlead  or  tan)  over  the  ink  lines  of 
many  of  his  single  sheet  prints.  So  that  still  in  a  remote  way  we  can 
consider  his  "  tan-ye  "  (orange-coloured  prints)  a  modified  trace  of 
Kano-Yeitoku  influence.  His  forms  are  often  awkward,  striking  out 
new  line  feeling,  and  the  colours  of  his  rougher  paintings  look  a  little 
like  Otsu-yc.  These  three  men,  Okumura  and  the  two  Torii,  though 
coming  into  prominence  as  early  as  1700,  continued  their  creative  work 
through  many  phases,  side  by  side  until  after  1750.  It  is  this  long, 
concentrated  range  of  work  that  makes  them  the  foundation  on  which 
the  later  and  finer  Ukiyoye  raises  solidly  its  superstructures.  We  show 
here  a  strong  sumi-ye  by  Kiyonobu,  and  a  fine  tan-yc  of  two  women 
by  Kiyomasu. 

The  second  stage  of  the  work  or  these  three  men  began  between 
1 71 5  and  1720,  and  consisted  first  in  expanding  the  range  of  the 
hand-colouring  upon  the  prints  from  the  dominant  orange  through  reds, 
blues  and  purples,  browns  and  yellows  ;  second,  in  putting  in  the  hand- 
applied  blacks  and  gold  powders  in  lacquer  pigment  (whence  the  name 
urushi-y^)  ;  third,  in  making  the  average  size  of  the  print  smaller,  but 
composed  in  a  triptych,  three  designs  in  one,  which  could  be  cut  apart 
if  desired  ;  fourth,  in  making  a  specialty  of  developing  actor  prints,  a 
movement  in  which  even  Masanobu  at  this  time  joined.  This  kind  of 
work  lasted  down  to  about  1740,  and  the  group  of  workers  was  joined 
by  many,  but  especially  Masanobu's  pupil,  Nishimura  Shigenaga.  A 
beautiful  painting  of  a  scene  in  a  garden  by  Masanobu  of  this  day 
Is  In  the  collection  of  Mr.  Freer's,  and  an  urushl-ye  print  by  Shigenaga 
Is  of  the  same  subject. 

The  third  stage  of  the  work  began  with  these  four  men  about 
1740  and  continued  for  about  fifteen  years.  Its  primary  feature  being  the 
development  of  colour  printing.     Heretofore  only  the  black  outline  had 


I90     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND  JAPANESE    ART 

been  printed,  and  from  one  block.  But  the  process  of  applying  colour  by 
hand  made  the  edition  still  rather  expensive.  If  identical  tints  could  be 
applied  to  all  the  sheets  from  cut  blocks  it  would  greatly  cheapen  the  work. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  would  change  the  aesthetic  effect  by  limiting  the 
number  of  colours.  At  first  two  only  were  chosen,  a  rose-pink  and  a  pale 
green.  These  two  tones,  with  the  black  and  the  white  spaces  of  the  paper, 
made  up  four  kinds  of  mosaic  spots,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  clever 
manipulation  and  juxtaposition  of  which  magic  variety  and  charm  should  be 
evolved.  These  dates  of  change  are  nowhere  given  in  the  scanty-printed 
records  of  Ukiyoye  ;  and  all  European  writers  were  following  Dr.  Anderson 
in  asserting  1696  as  about  the  first  date  for  colour  printing,  until  my 
Ketchum  catalogue  of  1896  appeared.  The  determination  of  these  dates 
was  a  slow  work  built  up  by  me  between  1880  and  1896  solely  from 
internal  evidence  and  the  variation  of  fashions  and  coiffure. 

Hand  colouring,  however,  was  not  entirely  discarded  at  once  after  1742, 
but  retained  for  specially  careful  and  expensive  pieces,  which  now  undertook 
to  enlarge  their  size  and  scope,  as  they  had  not  been  enlarged  since  171 5. 
We  have  thus  the  phenomenon  of  the  two  styles  working  side  by  side — the 
rose  and  green  colour  prints  for  small  pieces  in  triptych,  mostly  actors,  and 
the  large  hand-coloured  sheets,  veritable  paintings  but  for  line,  for  street 
and  country  scenes,  and  the  portraits  of  belles.  But  even  those  latter 
ceased  to  be  used  about  1750.  The  grand  old  group  of  four  was  now 
joined,  among  others,  by  Torii  Kiyomitsu,  son  or  grandson  of  Kiyomasu, 
Ishikawa  Toyonobu,  pupil  of  Masanobu,  and  Suzuki  Harunobu,  pupil  of 
Shigenaga.  The  grandest  work  in  both  lines  is  done  by  these  seven 
men,  until  Masanobu,  the  most  suave  of  all  in  form,  and  most  tender  in 
colour,  dies  about  1752.  A  two-colour  triptych  by  Masanobu  belongs 
to  C.  J.  Morse,  of  Evanston,  and  of  about  the  date  1750.  Kiyonobu 
ceased  to  work  about  1754  and  Kiyomasu  about  1756. 

The  next  stage,  a  short  one,  and  transition  to  the  culminating  period  that 
follows,  concerns  the  introduction  of  a  third  colour  block  about  1758.  For 
six  years  thereafter  all  kinds  of  changes  were  rung  upon  the  resultant 
combinations.  Yellow  was  first  used  with  the  red  and  green.  Then,  blue 
being  substituted  for  the  green,  the  so-called  primary  colours  made  it 
possible  to  get  secondaries  by  superposition.  The  four  remaining  leaders 
already  noticed  participated  in  this  work,  and  were  joined  by  Toyoharu, 
pupil  of  Toyonobu,  and  Shigemasa,  pupil  of  Shigenaga.  But  Kiyomasu 
and  Harunobu  were  the  chief  rivals,  the  former  leaning  to  soft  tones,  the 


2  £ 

H  "u 

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MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO 


191 


latter  to  superposition  with  primaries.  During  this  period  the  use  of  the 
long  narrow  sheet,  kakemonoye,  came  in. 

Reckoning  the  incipiency  of  Ukiyoyc  from  Matahei,  the  development 
of  its  form  from  Masanobu,  and  the  foundation  of  colour  handling  in  Yedo 
prmts  from  Kiyonobu,  a  fourth  period,  and  that  one  of  rapid  culmination, 
now  comes  in  in  1765  with  the  invention  by  the  veteran  Harunobu  of 
polychrome  printing — that  is,  the  using  of  as  many  colour  blocks  as  one 
requires  tints.  The  power  to  handle  such  complex  material  was  already 
well  based  on  mastery  of  two  and  three  tones.  The  rise  of  cesthetic 
power  was  rapid.  We  may  reckon  this  culminating  period  from 
1765  to  1806.  It  can  itself  be  divided  into  three  sub-movements, 
the  growth  of  the  culmination  from  1765  to  1780,  the  culmination  of 
the  culmination  from  1780  to  1788,  and  the  decay  of  the  culmination 
from  1788  to  1806. 

Harunobu,  whose  work  as  traced  in  painting  goes  back  to  1735,  effected 
a  four-fold  revolution  thirty  years  later.  He  used  as  many  blocks  as  he 
wanted  tints  ;  he  chose  them  from  very  soft  tones  ;  he  filled  every  part  of 
the  paper  except  the  human  faces  with  tone,  selecting  separate  tints  for  sky, 
earth  and  parts  of  buildings  ;  and  he  changed  his  subjects  from  actors  and 
street  belles  to  domestic  scenes,  mostly  romantic  incidents  of  youth.  This 
last  change  came  from  two  influences — the  success  of  such  new  subjects  in 
the  black  outline  illustrated  books  which  he  had  issued  since  1750,  and  the 
desire  to  succeed  in  prints  to  the  pictorial  line  which  Shunsui  had  maintained 
from  1725  in  paintings.  He  called  himself  "  Yamato  artist,"  thus 
intimating  that  he  was  consciously  doing  what  the  old  Tosa  artists  had 
done  in  1200 — studying  native  life  in  all  its  purer  phases,  and  yet  without 
retaining  a  trace  of  Tosa  technique.  He  had  the  genius  to  divine  that  full- 
colour  prints  were  the  appropriate  form  for  this  work. 

The  fame  of  Harunobu's  prints  from  1765  to  1772  is  upon 
every  lip.  He  changed  the  prevailing  shape  of  print  to  a  small  square 
sheet  that  would  develop  a  fine  pictorial  composition.  He  also  made 
wonderfully  new  and  beautiful  use  of  the  tall  narrow  kakemonoye,  far 
surpassing  all  his  predecessors  in  his  variety  of  handling  this  different 
species  of  design.  His  colouring  has  a  soft  charm  in  its  flat  spacing  which 
is  more  delicate  and  varied  than  Greek.  He  experimented  month  by 
month  with  new  papers,  pigments  and  solvents.  At  times  he  pressed  the 
block  so  lightly  that  only  a  transparent  film  of  tone  lay  on  the  fibres  ;  at 
others  he  used  solid  opaques  ;  in  yet  others  he  embossed  the  paper  by 

N  2 


192     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

hard  stamping  with  a  colourless  block.  His  colours  are  softest  in  1765-6, 
richest  in  1767-69,  tending  to  strong  effects  of  black-and-white  alternating 
with  tints  in  1770-72,  His  figures,  which  are  short  in  1765,  grow  tall  and 
slender  about  1770.  The  wings  of  the  women's  hair  over  the  ears  begin 
to  expand  laterally,  like  a  kind  of  hollow  shell,  from  1768.  They  have 
become  much  swollen  and  top-heavy  by  1772.  The  use  of  a  thin  redlead 
mixed  with  white  for  interior  woodwork  begins  from  1768.  A  predomi- 
nance of  green  in  the  tinting  dates  from  1770.  An  endless  charm  lurks 
n  his  dainty  little  figures  of  young  girls.  The  young  girl  walking  in  the 
wind,  which  we  reproduce,  is  from  a  dove-tinted  print  of  1766,  the  two 
kakemonoy^  from  1769  to  1771. 

From  1772  to  1780  the  Harunobu  line  of  experiments  was  continued 
by  his  best  pupil,  Haruhiro,  better  known  as  Koriusai.  Though  not 
such  an  inspired  artist  as  his  master,  Koriusai's  term  of  original  work 
fell  upon  perfected  technique  and  changes  in  fashion  which  gave 
most  picturesque  opportunities.  His  forte  lay  in  two  directions — 
groups  of  portraits  of  Yoshiwara  belles,  for  which  he  used  a  larger, 
squarish  sheet  than  Harunobu's,  and  more  elaborate  designs  in  the 
difficult  kakemonoye,  into  which  he  introduced  sometimes  three  and 
four  figures.  There  is  no  question  that  he  is  the  greatest  and 
most  prolific  composer  in  this  line.  In  colour  he  gradually  introduced 
a  stronger  orange,  and  about  1775,  as  foil  for  it,  he  tended  to  supplement 
Harunobu's  green  with  a  soft  blue.  Figures,  which  were  tall  and  slender 
in  1772-3  became  shorter  and  stouter  about  1776,  then  grow  tall  and  stout 
from  about  1778,  when  his  drawing  becomes  most  perfect  and  his  colouring 
strong,  sometimes  enhancing  its  darks  with  pure  black  breaking  against 
orange.  His  coloured  patterns  on  garments  are  brilliant  ;  but  on  the  whole 
he  has  less  atmospheric  tone  than  Harunobu.  A  strong  kakemonoye  of  his 
best  date  is  here  given.  He  has  also  left  us  a  great  many  paintings.  The 
wings  of  the  female  coiffure,  expanding  over  the  ears  in  Harunobu's  day, 
had  grown  to  wide  falling  shells  in  1775  ;  shells  which  expanded  to  nearly 
a  foot  in  width  by  1778,  and  began  to  grow  more  pointed  at  the  tips  in 
1779.  It  is  this  great  winged  head,  like  an  Egyptian  scarab,  which  gives 
the  type,  balance  and  unique  dignity  to  Koriusai's  figures. 

The  account  of  this  rise  to  full  power  would  not  be  complete  without 
considering  the  work  of  three  schools  parallel  with  Harunobu's  between 
1765  and  1780,  all  adopting  his  new  method  of  colour  work,  but  making 
individual    applications    of   it.     One    is    the    school  of  Toyoharu  already 


I 


192     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

hard  stamping  with  a  colourless  block.  His  colours  are  softest  in  1765-6, 
richest  in  1767-69,  tending  to  strong  effects  of  black-and-white  alternating 
with  tints  in  1770-72.  His  figures,  which  are  short  in  1765,  grow  tall  and 
slender  about  1770.  The  wings  of  the  women's  hair  over  the  ears  begin 
to  expand  laterally,  like  a  kind  of  hollow  shell,  from  1768.  They  have 
become  much  swollen  and  top-heavy  by  1772.  The  use  of  a  thin  redlead 
mixed  with  white  for  interior  woodwork  begins  from  1768.  A  predomi- 
nance of  green  in  the  tinting  dates  from  1770.  An  endless  charm  lurks 
n  his  dainty  little  figures  of  young  girls.  The  young  girl  walking  in  the 
wind,  which  we  reproduce,  is  from  a  dove-tinted  print  of  1766,  the  two 
kakemonoye  from  1769  to  1771. 

From  1772  to  1780  the  Harunobu  line  of  experiments  was  continued 
by  his  best  pupil,  Haruhiro,  better  known  as  Koriusai.  Though  not 
such  an  inspired  artist  as  his  master,  Koriusai's  term  of  original  work 
fell  upon  perfected  technique  and  changes  in  fashion  which  gave 
most  picturesque  opportunities.  His  forte  lay  in  two  directions — 
groups  of  portraits  of  Yoshiwara  belles,  for  which  he  used  a  larger, 
squarish  sheet  than  Harunobu's,  and  more  elaborate  designs  in  the 
difl^cult  kakemonoye,  into  which  he  introduced  sometimes  three  and 
four  figures.  There  is  no  question  that  he  is  the  greatest  and 
most  prolific  composer  in  this  line.  In  colour  he  gradually  introduced 
a  stronger  orange,  and  about  1775,  as  foil  for  it,  he  tended  to  supplement 
Harunobu's  green  with  a  soft  blue.  Figures,  which  were  tall  and  slender 
in  1772-3  became  shorter  and  stouter  about  1776,  then  grow  tall  and  stout 
from  about  1778,  when  his  drawing  becomes  most  perfect  and  his  colouring 
strong,  sometimes  enhancing  its  darks  with  pure  black  breaking  against 
orange.  His  coloured  patterns  on  garments  are  brilliant  ;  but  on  the  whole 
he  has  less  atmospheric  tone  than  Harunobu.  A  strong  kakemonoye  of  his 
best  date  is  here  given.  He  has  also  left  us  a  great  many  paintings.  The 
wings  of  the  female  coiffure,  expanding  over  the  ears  in  Harunobu's  day, 
had  grown  to  wide  falling  shells  in  1775  ;  shells  which  expanded  to  nearly 
a  foot  in  width  by  1778,  and  began  to  grow  more  pointed  at  the  tips  in 
1779.  It  is  this  great  winged  head,  like  an  Egyptian  scarab,  which  gives 
the  type,  balance  and  unique  dignity  to  Koriusai's  figures. 

The  account  of  this  rise  to  full  power  would  not  be  complete  without 
considering  the  work  of  three  schools  parallel  with  Harunobu's  between 
1765  and  1780,  all  adopting  his  new  method  of  colour  work,  but  making 
individual    applications    of  it.     One    is    the    school  of  Toyoharu  already 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  193 

mentioned,  which  composes  exquisite  groups  of  young  girls  at  play.  He  is 
specially  prolific  as  a  painter.  Another  is  that  of  Shigemasa,  whose  drawing 
is  more  powerful  and  accurate,  using  wedge-shaped  brush  strokes  in  outline, 
and  whose  colouring  tends  toward  soft  dove  greys.  He  is  specially  skilful 
in  representing  motion,  his  dancing  No  actors  being  extraordinarily  fine. 
The  third  school  is  that  of  Shunsho,  strange  pupil  of  Shunsui,  who  threw 
over  his  native  school  of  painting  women  to  succeed  to  the  Torii  habit  or 
printing  actors.  Thus  he  and  Harunobu  in  some  sense  exchanged  places 
in  1765.  His  enormous  range  of  actor  pieces,  done  in  separate  triptychs, 
between  that  date  and  1780,  in  drawing  quite  discard  the  old  stiflF  manner  of 
the  Torii,  and  in  colour  strike  new  combinations  out  of  the  Harunobu 
scale;  the  great  bulk  of  them  come  after  1770.  They  hold  themselves 
on  equal  level  with  Koriusai's  prints  for  pure  beauty,  though  their  shape 
aflx>rds  less  room  for  elaborate  composition.  Their  patterns  exquisitely  cut 
the  tones  of  the  dresses,  up  to  1778,  when  they  become  simpler  and 
broader.  The  figures,  in  height,  follow  the  fashions  in  Koriusai.  By  1780 
they  are  excessively  tall.  The  whole  development  of  the  Japanese  theatre 
can  be  followed  in  this  series.  Shunsho  also  painted,  and  he  left  most 
exquisite  books  in  coloured  illustration,  of  which  the  Seiro  Bijin  Awase, 
done  in  collaboration  with  Shigemasa  in  1776,  is  the  chief. 

But  a  greater  than  Koriusai  and  Shunsho  had  come  fully  upon  the  scene 
by  1880,  and  ready,  both  by  native  genius  and  inheritance  of  perfected 
technique,  to  inaugurate  the  culmination  of  the  culmination.  Torii  Kiyonaga, 
an  adopted  son  of  Kiyomitsu,  had  shown  talent  as  a  boy  in  the  three-colour 
process.  As  a  youth  he  had  experimented  with  Harunobu's  polychrome, 
though  professionally  forced  to  make  cheap  actor  prints.  By  1774  he  grace- 
fully yielded  this  latter  field  to  the  new  school  of  Shunsho,  and  entered 
seriously  into  competition  with  Koriusai  as  master  of  printing  scenes  from 
Japanese  life.  The  rapid  advance  in  the  work  of  both  from  1 775  to  1 780  must 
be  explained  by  this  conscious  rivalry.  Kiyonaga,  following  a  suggestion  of 
Shigemasa,  introduced  a  far  greater  flexibility  of  brush  stroke  in  outlining 
his  figures,  and  a  greater  breadth  in  handling  his  colours  and  patterns. 
Peculiarly  fond  of  out-of-door  groups,  he  inaugurated  a  new  balance 
between  the  tones  of  his  figures  and  the  background  by  leaving  out  of  the 
latter  most  of  the  sky  and  earth  tones  which  Harunobu  had  introduced. 
At  first  sight  this  seems  a  movement  backward,  but  Kiyonaga  correctly  saw 
that  against  such  background  tone  the  depth  of  Harunobu's  figures  was 
insufficient  for  atmospheric  detachment,  except  when  black  could  be  used. 


194     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

To  get  such  relief  he  determined  to  throw  all  his  atmosphere  into  high 
light,  depending  upon  soft  drawing  in  details  to  suggest  the  solidity  of 
landscape.  This  also  avoids  the  excessive  falsifying  of  the  white  tones  of 
the  flesh  which  Kiyonaga  did  not  care  to  tint,  as  Shunsho  had  sometimes 
done  for  his  male  actors.  Thus  in  free  drawing  of  movement  and 
atmospheric  impression  Kiyonaga  went  far  beyond  Koriusai's  powers, 
even  in  his  experimental  stage. 

It  is  only  from  1780  that,  having  distanced  Koriusai  and  driven  him 
from  the  field,  Kiyonaga  launches  upon  the  career  which  I  have  marked  as 
the  extreme  of  culmination.  He  is  the  undisputed  lord  of  the  Temmei 
period,  the  pupils  of  Toyoharu,  Shigemasa  and  Shunsho  largely  going  over 
to  his  perfected  manner.  His  figures  are  very  dignified  and  tall  down  to 
1786,  and  drawn  with  long  sweeping  modulated  line  that  almost  suggests 
the  penmanship  of  Ririomin.  He  adopts  the  large  square  sheet  of 
Koriusai,  which  gives  free  play  for  the  composition  of  six  or  more  figures. 
He  appreciates  the  strengthening  value  of  straight  lines,  and  of  the  long 
"  cool  "  curves  that  become  tangent  to  them.  In  the  colouring  of  garments 
he  aims  for  the  broad  tone  of  textures  rather  than  the  delineations  of 
pattern,  sometimes  showing  both  flesh  and  undergarment  through  the 
transparency  of  summer  outer  stufi^s.  He  also  gives  us  the  deepening  or 
tint  in  folding  and  sheen,  yet  without  prejudice  to  the  mosaic  flatness  of  his 
tone.  His  colours  are  gay,  often  suggesting  sunshine,  as  in  the  bright 
warm  pinks  of  his  dresses  and  the  pure  yellow  used  for  hillside  greens.  In 
short  Kiyonaga  is  at  once  the  most  successful  draughtsman  of  all  Ukiyoy^, 
and  the  most  brilliant  plein  air-ist.  He  was  the  only  man  beside  Harunobu 
and  Koriusai  who  could  do  fine  kakemonoye.  Representations  of  his 
finest  prints  show  up  well  beside  photographs  of  natural  groups,  and  or 
compositions  of  the  old  Venetian  masters.  Kiyonaga's  paintings  are  also 
magnificent,  though  very  rare,  and  he  did  at  least  one  exquisite  illustrated 
book  in  outline. 

Kiyonaga's  power  over  motion  in  his  Koriusai  period  is  shown  in  the 
print  of  boys  playing  with  a  woman.  The  same,  and  his  most  perfect 
mastery  of  values,  is  shown  by  his  painting  of  three  women  walking  in  wind 
on  the  banks  of  theSumida  river.  This  is  of  about  1782,  and  shows  the 
raising  and  pointing  of  the  hair  wings.  The  top  knot  has  become  a  small 
balloon,  and  the  beaver  tail,  so  conspicuous  from  1740  to  1760,  has 
disappeared  in  a  mere  rudimentary  stump.  This  splendid  painting  belongs 
to    Mr.   George    Vanderbilt.     The   dignity   of  line   in   prints  of  1884-5  is 


FAN 

BY   SHUNSHO 

Monsieur  G.  Bulliek,  Pari 


•J  2 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  195 

shown  by  the  three  tall  girls  at  a  tea-house  bench,  and  the  four  women  with 
a  child.  Of  1786  is  his  three  figures  in  snow,  a  man  in  a  magnificent  robe 
of  black  velvet  standing  between  two  women  in  soft  orange.  For  dignity  of 
line  and  power  of  values  this  is  unsurpassed  in  Ukiyoy^.  Greatest  of  all, 
and  in  the  same  year,  is  his  print  of  three  girls  at  a  window,  looking  our 
upon  the  sea  by  moonlight.  The  interior  is  lighted  in  warm  tones  by  a 
Japanese  lamp  (andon).  The  scene  outside  is  in  luminous  night  greys, 
with  the  half-full  moon  entangled  in  light  clouds.  The  boats  in  the  far 
harbour  show  reddish  torches.  Such  a  study  of  three  separate  sources  of 
light,  though  without  the  expedient  of  cast  shadows,  is  worthy  of  our 
modern  realistic  students  of  forge  effects.  The  lines,  too,  falling  from  the 
standing  figure,  and  then  curling  into  the  two  crouching  girls  upon  the 
floor,  are  more  harmonious  than  Botticelli,  more  suave  and  flowing  than 
Greek  painting,  and  indeed  suggesting  the  finest  line  feeling  of  Chinese 
Buddhist  painting,  and  even  Greek  sculpture.  It  is  for  such  work  that  we 
must  put  Kiyonaga — though  an  Ukiyoyc-shi — for  absolute  esthetic  height, 
beside  Koyetsu,  Tanyu  and  Okio  of  Tokugawa  days  ;  and  even  worthy  of 
coming  into  competition  with  Ririomin,  Kiso,  Masanobu,  Motonobu  and 
Raphael. 

After  1786  Kiyonaga's  style  weakens  by  shortening  the  figure  and  a 
little  overdoing  the  curves.  The  point  of  the  head-dress  becomes  rounder. 
Fashion,  too,  makes  the  figures  of  girls  become  shorter.  The  type  for  all 
contemporary  artists  is  not  so  beautiful.  Yet  Mr.  Frecr's  Kiyonaga 
painting  of  a  young  girl  in  strawberry  finish,  arranging  her  hairpin  with 
uplifted  arm,  is  very  beautiful.  He  seems  deliberately  to  have  withdrawn 
from  active  competition  after  1790,  though  he  lived  down  to  1815, 
disdaining  to  take  part  in  what  he  felt  to  be  a  decay  of  fashions  and 
manners  and  descent  to  picturesque  extravagances  which  lowered  his 
aesthetic  standard.      In  this  again  he  shows  himself  the  true  artist. 

The  whole  range  of  the  artists  of  the  day  were  practically  Kiyonaga's 
followers.  Closest  to  him  was  Shuncho,  who  had  originally  been  Shunsho's 
pupil.  A  proof  impression  from  the  outline  block,  made  before  the  colour 
blocks  were  cut,  shows  the  dignity  of  his  line  and  the  method  of  work. 
His  prints,  sometimes  indistinguishable  but  for  signature  from  Kiyonaga's, 
range  from  1782  to  1792.  He  has  left  some  books,  but  almost  no 
paintings.  Kitao  Shigemasa  himself  in  these  days  falls  under  Kiyonaga's 
influence,  as  is  witnessed  by  his  splendid  painting  of  many  figures  walking 
along  the  Oji  road,  owned  by    Mr.   Freer.      Here   the   drawing,    which   is 


196     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

exquisite,  is  enhanced  by  the  most  delicious  colouring  in  Kiyonaga  pinks 
and  soft  evanescent  blues.  Shunman,  Shigenaga's  greatest  pupil,  working 
into  the  Kiyonaga  manner,  becomes  a  veritable  Whistler,  as  is  shown  by  the 
counterpoint  of  his  two  graceful  ladies  gazing  upon  the  bridged  river  from  a 
balcony.  The  very  brush  strokes  here,  though  cut  from  wood,  have  the 
feeling  of  an  etching.  Shunsho  and  Toyoharu  practically  give  up  print 
producing  after  1782,  and  in  their  paintings  are  somewhat  influenced  by 
Kiyonaga's  proportions. 


By  this  time,  the  later  eighteenth  century,  most  of  the  causes  which 
could  bring  about  the  peculiar  nature  of  Tokugawa  society  were  in  full 
swing.  The  people  themselves,  apart  from  the  samurai,  already  had 
schools  of  their  own,  historical  scholars,  and  a  growing  literature.  They 
were  aware  of  the  usurpation  of  the  Shogunate,  they  were  already  fired 
with  an  enthusiasm  for  nationality,  and  an  instinct  for  freedom.  Motoori 
had  built  up  his  theory  of  a  divine  origin  of  the  Mikado  through 
Shinto.  Seditious  sheets  and  pamphlets  were  issued  from  secret  hiding 
places,  som.etimes  the  depths  of  the  Yoshiwara.  The  Shogun's  govern- 
ment was  all  on  the  defensive,  more  prone  to  spying  and  repression, 
ready  to  hold  samurai  to  stricter  discipline.  The  Kano  art  of  the  nobles 
had  now  become  an  eclectic  study  of  ancient  Chinese  ideals.  The 
new  literature,  except  at  one  or  two  liberal  Courts  like  that  of  Mito, 
was  tabooed.  On  the  part  of  the  people  the  movement  toward 
light  and  freedom  was  multiform.  They,  too,  wished  to  study  into 
the  past  of  China  as  well  as  of  Japan  ;  and  great  popular  romances 
were  soon  to  issue  based  upon  the  tradition  of  both  countries.  A 
new  popular  poetry  developed.  It  was  the  very  central  period  of 
Dutch  influence,  which  had  already  affected  Ukiyoy^  artists  like 
Toyoharu.  Science  was  pursued  in  medicine  and  in  making  collec- 
tions, at  least  of  careful  drawings  of  birds,  flowers  and  animals  ; 
the  curiosity  of  the  people  knew  no  bounds.  They  had  become  so 
interested  in  their  own  history  that  every  man  wished  to  travel  all 
over  the  country  to  new  scenes  famous  for  their  beauty  or  their 
association  with  great  deeds.  Travel  became  a  passion,  and,  because  it 
was  so  cheap,  almost  universal.  For  the  use  of  pilgrims,  guide 
books  were  issued,  much  like  our  European  Baedekers.  In  art 
three     movements     were     alreadv     rooted — the     bunjinga     through     the 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  197 

southern  country,  and  partly  through  the  northern  ;  the  Shijo,  mostly 
at  Kioto  and  Osaka  ;  and  the  Ukiyoyc,  at  Yedo,  and  disputing  with 
bunjinga  for  patronage  through  the  northern  provinces.  Naturally 
it  was  only  the  more  scholarly  and  conservative  among  the  people 
that  took  to  bunjinga  ;  some  of  the  samurai  took  to  it  also.  It 
could  do  little  to  help  popular  unrest  and  research.  For  this,  Ukiyoy^ 
now    opened    up    new    resources. 

What  we  must  really  call  the  decadence  of  the  culminating  period 
came  in  with  the  withdrawal  of  Kiyonaga,  1788  or  1790.  His 
standard  of  beauty  was  probably  too  high,  too  abstract,  too  removed 
from  the  taste  of  a  people  deliberately  drifting  into  passionate  opposi- 
tion to  their  masters,  and  full  of  new  thoughts.  A  sort  of  desperate 
defiance  was  in  the  air,  and  a  wild  determination  at  least  to  enjoy 
if  the  alien  government  would  furnish  no  real  relief.  But  whatever 
the  cause,  there  was  indeed,  about  1800,  and  after,  a  very  real 
lowering  of  both  the  moral  and  aesthetic  standards  of  the  streets. 
Men  and  women  went  to  the  extravagances  of  frank  vulgarity.  It 
was  a  sort  of  Genroku  carnival,  on  a  lower  plane.  The  Shogunate 
drew    its    line    of  restrictions    closer. 

The  decay  of  Ukiyoyti  art  did  not  at  once  show  itself,  however. 
The  three  masters  of  printing  who  dominate  the  age,  from  1790  to 
1806,  namely,  Yeishi,  Utamaro  and  Toyokuni,  had  all  been  influenced 
in  the  preceding  decade  by  the  noble  standards  of  Kiyonaga.  Yet 
they  came  from  various  sources.  Toyokuni  was  indeed  the  chief 
pupil  of  that  Toyoharu  whom  we  saw  to  spring  from  the  old 
Toyonobu  about  1760.  Utamaro  had  been  a  pupil,  during  Anyei,* 
of  Sekiyen,  and  old  Ukiyoye-shi  who  had  reverted  to  a  kind  of 
mixture  of  bunjinga  and  Kano.  He  also  did  some  early  actor  prints 
in  Shunsho's  style.  Yeishi  had  been  a  Kano  pupil  of  that  Yeisen 
who  founded  the  eclectic  school,  and  had  seceded  to  the  cause 
of  popular  art.  But  by  1786  they  had  all  become  so  absorbed  by 
the  graces  of  Kiyonaga's  drawing,  composition  and  colouring,  that  their 
works  are  only  a  continuation  of  his.  And  for  some  years  after  his 
withdrawal,  the  power  of  his  influence  over  them  was  strong  enough 
to  hold  them  to  a  considerable  degree  of  dignified  beauty.  About 
1796  Utamaro  began  to  execute  some  nature-study  books  in  specially 
aesthetic  colour  printing.  This  led  to  a  soft  beautifying  of  thousands 
of  New    Year's  and  other  congratulatory  printed  cards,  which  collectors 

*  (From  1772  to  1781.) 


198     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE    AND  JAPANESE   ART 

call  "  Suri-mono,"  "printed  things"  par  excellence.  In  the  large  sheet 
prints  a  simultaneous  change  showed  itself  in  a  gradual  elongation  of 
the  figure,  and  an  adoption  of  violent  motion  and  extravagant  attitudes. 
This  came  partly  from  a  change  in  fashion  which  was  building  the 
top  knot  member  of  the  ladies'  coiffure  into  an  expanding  balloon, 
j^sthetic  proportion  required  a  corresponding  elongation  of  the  head 
and  that  of  the  body,  and  both  of  a  different  balance  in  attitude. 
The  sober,  finely-composed  lines  of  Kiyonaga  looked  out  of  place.  The 
head  had  to  tilt,  the  neck,  arms  and  legs  became  thin  ;  and  the 
garments,  no  longer  clinging  closely  to  classic  form,  had  to  be  thrown 
over  the  strange  distortions  in  loose  and  baggy  folds.  The  eyes 
were  elongated  and  drawn  upward  ;  the  mouth  reduced  to  a  slit. 
No  doubt  a  certain  piquant  picturesqueness  accompanies  these  changes 
for  a  time.  The  extravagances  of  Utamaro  appealed  to  a  degenerating 
taste,  as  they  appeal  to-day  to  many  modern  French  aesthetes.  Almost  no 
new  great  structural  principles  were  introduced.  Utamaro  and  Yeishi 
printed  portraits  in  great  heads  ;  and  there  are  some  bold  domestic 
scenes.  Toyokuni  succeeded  to  a  school  of  actor  printing  that  is  far 
coarser  and  more  awkward  than  Shunsho's.  Landscape  accessories 
became  wild  and  theatrical.  Toyokuni  followed  his  master  in  in- 
troducing tree  drawing  from  Dutch  prints.  A  violent,  false  perspective 
was  built  out  of  foreign  half  -  teaching.  By  1800  these  several 
movements  had  gone  to  the  point  of  giving  us  figures  some  twelve 
heads  high,  with  great  balloon-shaped  hair  almost  a  foot  across.  All 
trace  of  Kiyonaga's  drawing  of  faces  and  figures  had  now  vanished. 
Almond  eyes,  long  noses  and  violent  postures  reigned  supreme.  Yet 
some  striking  new  types  are  given  us  in  angular  composition  and  in 
colour.  Toyokuni's  tall  figures  of  1802-3,  though  not  like  human 
beings,  have  a  wonderful  new  sort  of  aesthetic  dignity  that  we  can 
call  again  almost  Greek.  It  is  but  a  momentary  state  of  passage, 
however,  for  in  a  year  or  two  more  all  aesthetic  standard  seems  broken 
up,    and    the    degeneration    passes    beyond    bounds. 

To  illustrate  this  rapid  change  we  refer  to  Yeishi's  fine  figure  of  a 
girl  fishing  from  a  print  of  1787  in  the  Kiyonaga  fashion;  a  painting  of 
two  women  walking  in  snow  by  Utamaro  (Mr.  Freer's)  about  1797, 
and  Toyokuni's  print  of  two  girls  coming  from  a  bath  about  1803.  The 
extravagance  of  action  and  proportion  that  accompanied  the  balloon  about 
1800  are  shown  in  Utamaro's  print  where  a  shadow  profile  of  a  girl  is  cast 


GIRLS   UNDER   CHERRY   TREES 

BY    UTAMARO 
(British  Museum) 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  199 

upon  a  translucent  shoji.  Toyokuni's  associate  and  younger  brother,  Toyo- 
hiro,  devoted  himself  partly  to  printing  landscapes  between  1800  and  1806. 
There  is  in  particular  a  fine  landscape  of  ink  work,  looking  like  a  Whistler 
etching.  The  demand  for  landscape  was  a  slow  outgrowth  from  the 
guide  book  movement. 

The  real  degeneration,  and  the  beginning  of  a  fifth  and  last  movement 
of  Ukiyoye,  came  in  with  1807.  The  pupils  of  Utamaro  carried  the 
extravagances  of  their  teacher  to  a  point  of  ugliness.  Toyokuni,  who 
continued  to  work  for  many  years,  followed  the  downward  path.  Yeishi 
confined  himself  to  careless  paintings.  The  new  artist  who  expressed 
frankly  all  the  hideousness  of  drawing  and  proportion  between  1807  and 
1820  was  Yeizan.  The  figures  became  short  and  dumpy,  sometimes  only 
about  six  heads  high.  The  heads  themselves  are  about  five  times  as  long 
as  they  are  wide.  The  two  slanting  slits  of  eyes  are  at  first  gashes  across 
the  face,  then  about  18 12  open  into  a  great  stare  with  exaggerated  pupils. 
The  figures  of  girls  often  become  as  formless  as  the  queen  of  hearts  on  our 
playing  cards.  Patterns  become  generalized  and  coarse.  Hair  is  drawn  in 
a  few  coarse  strands.  Only  in  the  landscape  backgrounds,  and  in  the 
colours  of  costumes  considered  as  spotty  wall-paper,  is  there  any  hint  of 
beauty.  Following  his  master  Yeizan  in  this  ultra-degenerate  style  is 
Yeisen ;  and  following  Toyokuni,  his  pupils,  Kunisada  and  Kuniyoshi.  It 
seems  incredible  that  the  maniacal  distortions  of  the  prints  of  1815 
could  have  come  by  deliberate  change  from  the  perfections  of  Kiyonaga 
only  twenty-five  years  earlier.  The  fine  rise  from  the  already  high 
Harunobu  to  Kiyonaga  took  quite  as  long  as  this  precipitation  into  the 
depths.  It  is  only  this  degenerate  style  of  i  8  1 5,  especially  of  Yeizan,  that 
the  mass  of  foreigners  in  Europe  and  America  have  seen  ;  and  from  this 
that  they  derive  their  low  opinion  of  Japanese  as  serious  art. 

From  1820  something  like  a  temporary  recovery  took  place  in 
Japanese  taste  ;  not  that  it  went  back  to  the  purity  and  drawing  of 
eighteenth-century  prints  ;  but  that  it  at  least  tried  for  some  order 
and  proportioning  in  the  new  colour.  The  best  figure  prints,  say  of 
Kunisada,  Kuniyoshi  and  Yeisen,  between  1820  and  1830,  rise  much 
above  the  caricatures  of  18 15.  Still,  the  spotting  remains  coarse; 
and  the  colours  tend  to  be  cheap  and  modern,  strong  reds  and 
deep  indigo-blues.  The  finest  pieces  have  considerable  feeling,  but 
they  are  mere  foster  decorations  compared  to  Kiyonaga's  beautiful 
groups. 


200     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND  JAPANESE   ART 

Now,  right  in  between  the  great  period  of  Kiyonaga,  and  the  lower 
standards  of  1830,  comes  in  such  an  extraordinary  Ukiyoye-shi  to  fill 
up  the  gap,  and  give  his  own  picturesque  versions  of  the  change,  a 
man  so  long-lived  withal,  and  of  such  marvellous  versatility,  that  we 
might  devote  a  whole  chapter  to  him.  I  refer  of  course  to  Hokusai. 
European  writers  have  lavished  panegyric  upon  him,  as  the  greatest 
artist  of  Japan.  He  is  the  best  known  abroad,  on  account  of  the 
great  quantity  and  cheapness  of  his  printed  books.  He  was  as  prolific 
as  Dore  along  all  lines.  Thousands  of  paintings  and  single  sheet  print 
designs  came  from  his  brush.  He  was  always  original,  different  from 
anyone  else,  though  often  taking  hints  from  the  moods  of  others.  The 
whole  world  of  the  samurai  lived  in  ignorance  of  him  ;  and  it  was 
largely  the  lower  grades  of  city  people  who  cared  for  his  Ukiyoye 
work.  He  was  at  once  a  great  vulgarizer,  and  yet  through  his  coarse, 
varied  vigour,  an  aesthetic  reviver.  While  other  artists,  like  Toyokuni 
and  Yeizan,  were  descending  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death, 
between  18 10  and  1820,  Hokusai  alone  was  so  in  sympathy  with  the 
vulgarities  of  the  popular  style  as  to  concoct  a  veritable  aesthetic  type 
out  of  it.  And  yet  Hokusai's  is  the  only  school  of  Japanese  drawing 
that  never  looks  like  anything  in  nature.  We  are  so  accustomed  to 
his  books  from  youth,  that  we  suppose  Japan  to  be  a  queer  corner 
of  the  world  that  looks  like  him  ;  but  it  does  not.  It  was  his  own 
fancy,  a  world  translated  into  Hokusai-isms.  And  yet  they  are  often 
fine  as  line,  mass  and  colour.  Hokusai  is  a  great  designer,  as 
Kipling  and  Whitman  are  great  poets.  He  has  been  called  the  Dickens 
of  Japan  ;  but  no  one  name  or  analogy  could  characterize  his  many 
phases. 

Hokusai's  long  career  is  specially  fascinating  to  study,  because  we  can 
identify  his  changes  of  style  through  almost  every  year.  Here  we  can  give 
but  the  merest  sketch  of  it.  His  life  bridges  the  extraordinary  gap  from 
Torii  Kiyomitsu  to  Kunisada.  The  great  careers  of  Harunobu,  Koriusai, 
Shunsho,  Kiyonaga,  Utamaro  and  Toyokuni  he  witnessed,  and  to  some 
extent  shared  ;  yet  he  remained  always  himself.  Without  signature  or  date 
we  could  identify  all  his  prints,  even  the  first,  and  separate  them  year  from 
year.  Of  the  work  of  no  other  Chinese  or  Japanese  artist  can  we  say  so 
much.  And  yet  we  must  not  be  tempted  by  this  interest  into  admitting 
that  Hokusai  is  even  the  greatest  of  Ukiyoyti  artists.  We  certainly 
rank   him    below   Masanobu,  Harunobu  and  Kiyonaga.      Still,  through  his 


THE   WATERFALL   OF    YORO 

(One  of  the  Ei^'ht  Waterfalls) 

BY    HOKUSAI 

(British  Museum) 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  201 

matchless  fecundity  he  is  one  of  the  world's  notable  masters.  There  are  no 
collections  of  his  work  in  Japan.  The  richest  collection  of  his  paintings 
belongs  to  Mr.  Freer  ;  of  his  illustrated  books  to  Mr.  Morse,  of  Evanston  ; 
of  his  early  prints  at  least  to  Mr.  Lathrop,  of  New  York.  The  best 
all-round  grouping  of  his  three  lines  of  work  put  together  is  in  the  Bigclow 
collection  at  the  Boston  Art  Museum. 

The  earliest  works  of  Hokusai,  now  known,  are  his  illustrated 
novelettes  and  some  actor  colour  prints  in  the  style  of  his  master  Shunsho, 
of  about  the  date  1775,  when  he  was  fifteen  years  old.  He  made  many 
actor  prints  down  to  1780.  In  that  year  he  began  to  try  kakemonoye  and 
square  sheets  in  the  style  of  Kiyonaga.  His  name  through  all  these  is 
Shunro,  though  he  sometimes  uses  Takitaro  for  his  books.  From  1790  to 
1796  he  is  temporarily  influenced  by  Utamaro,  though  his  paintings  still 
bear  strong  qualities  of  Shunsho.  From  1796  Hokusai's  style,  as  his  name, 
breaks  into  extraordinary  changes  which  it  is  hard  to  follow.  It  is  clear 
that  it  is  the  same  vulgarising,  elongating  movement  which  brings  on  the 
new  style  in  Utamaro  and  Toyokuni ;  but  with  Hokusai  it  takes  a  different 
phase.*  He  came  under  the  influence  of  two  obscure  men,  Torin 
and  Hishikawa  Sori,  both  of  whom  had  a  coarse,  broad,  loose  style,  more 
outre  than  Utamaro.  He  seems  for  a  time  (about  i  798)  to  have  conceived 
that  he  might  find  the  real  breadth  that  he  wanted  in  the  quite  alien 
technique  of  Sotatsu.  He  calls  himself  variously,  Sori,  Hiakurinsai  Sori, 
Tawaraya  Sori,  Hishigawa,  or  Hishikawa  Sori,  Kako,  Hokusai  Sori, 
retaining  this  group  of  names  down  to  about  i  800.  The  name  Hokusai, 
as  a  pen-name,  began  from  about  1797,  but  before  1800  was  used  only 
occasionally  and  in  company  with  "Sori."  From  1800  to  1802  we  find  in 
his  signatures  several  ways  of  stating  the  fact  that  he  had  given  up  the 
name  Sori  for  Hokusai.  Through  these  years  from  1796  to  1802  he 
executed  a  large  number  of  books  with  coloured  plates  crowded  with  tall 
figures  ;  and  literally  thousands  of  great  coloured  single  sheet  prints,  some 
of  which  are  most  delicate  and  broad  in  tint,  like  Whistler's,  and  are  grace- 
ful in  form  and  movement. 

From  1802  to  about  18 10,  Hokusai  called  himself  by  that  name 
chiefly,  though  often  united  to  other  subordinate  ones,  as  Gwakiojin, 
Katsushika,  Toyo.  From  1798  to  1802  he  occasionally  used  Kako 
alone.     His    style    now   becomes   harder,  with   finer  wedge-shaped   lines, 

*  Influence  of  Dutch  1 792-1 796.  Some  real  effort  to  make  prints  look  like  the  Dutch 
etchings.     Also  colours  in  these  prints  of  Dutch  oil  paintings. 


202     EPOCHS    OF    CHINESE    AND   JAPANESE    ART 

and  more  solid  colour  in  his  paintings.  From  1804  he  uses  much 
opaque  red  and  white  pigment  combined  with  greys.  In  his  prints 
his  colour  partakes  of  the  Yeizan  degeneration.  But  in  books  he 
starts  on  a  tremendous  career  of  illustration  for  the  many-volumed 
romances  of  Bakin  and  others.  For  this  he  develops  a  free-line  style 
that  shows  also  in  his  paintings.  About  18 10  he  changes  his  name 
to  Taito,  which  title  he  retains  until  about  1820.  This  period  is 
chiefly  given  up  to  the  rough  encyclopaedic  illustrations  of  his  well- 
known  "  Mangwa "  books.  Single  sheet  prints,  in  which  he  had  been 
so  prolific  about  1802,  he  mostly  drops.  Careful  paintings  are  also 
rare,  and  bring  in  a  crumbly  jerky  line  which  breaks  up  his  former 
dignity.  His  drawing  soon  degenerates  into  a  wild  extravagance  or 
rough  caricature.  His  colour  at  this  strange  period  of  break-up  is 
light,    careless    and    harsh.     Many    rough    sketches    remain. 

From  1820  he  again  changed  his  name,  using  Tameichi  as  the 
chief.  Zen  Hokusai,  Tameichi,  is  now  frequently  found  for  the  next 
twenty  years.  From  1820  to  1826,  he  still  worked  in  sketches 
largely,  but  softening  his  colours  to  greys,  and  then  building  up 
experiments  in  two-tone  blotchy  tinting  of  orange  and  blue,  or  red 
and  green.  Here  he  loved  to  print  vegetables,  fruits,  flowers  and 
landscapes.  As  those  colour  experiments  went  on  he  enlarged  their 
range,  tending  toward  yellow  for  a  high  light,  and  deep  green-blue 
for  darks  (1826-30).  From  1828  to  1830  he  seems  to  have  said 
to  himself  that  it  was  time  to  come  out  from  his  debauch  of  sketches, 
and  prove  to  the  world  that  he  could  produce  great  finished  paintings. 
He  crowded  his  silks  with  carefully  drawn  and  heavily  coloured 
figures  ;  his  landscape  backgrounds  are  rich  and  full.  In  line,  too, 
he  made  new  experiments,  utterly  overcoming  the  broken  awkward 
daubs  of  his  transition  period,  and  retiring  to  well-ordered  sweeps 
of  drapery  so  fine  and  new  that  we  are  almost  persuaded  a  second 
Kiyonaga  is  coming.  His  finest  line  work  is  seen  in  the  books, 
paintings    and    prints    of    1830. 

From  1830  to  1840  Hokusai  entered  into  his  solid  inheritance 
of  deep-toned  prints  and  paintings,  having  heavy  yellows  and  green- 
blues  for  their  foundation.  His  mannerism  is  complete.  Particularly 
he  loves  landscapes,  as  his  Fuji  and  other  sets  attest.  At  this  time 
he  is  fond  of  painting  great  screens.  In  line  he  tends  to  make  the 
dignified    curves    of   his    1830    style    knot    up    too     much     into     spirals. 


BRIDGE    IN    RAIN 

(One  of  the  Hundred  Views  of  Yedo) 
BY    HIROSHIGE 
(British  Museum) 


Painting.  By  Hokusai. 

Collection  of  ^Ir.  Charles  L.  Freer. 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART    IN    YEDO  203 

The  last  ten  years  of  his  life,  from  1840  to  1850,  his  style  becomes 
heavier  and  darker,  letting  the  big  broken  strokes  that  should  be 
his  lines  become  only  rough  depths  in  his  massive  darks.  It  is  his 
strongest  and  broadest  notan  style  since  his  Sori  period,  but  much 
more  blocky  in  texture  :  that  is,  his  colour  is  put  on  crumbly  and 
dry  as  if  with  chunks  of  charcoal,  instead  of  with  wet  silvery  washes. 
In  paintings  Hokusai  always  recorded  his  age  after  his  80th  year. 
He  adopted  the  name  Gwakiojin-man  ;  and  generally  used  with  it  a 
seal  that  depicts  Fuji  mountain.  During  the  last  three  years  of  his 
life  he  changed  the  seal  to  one  which  shows  a  large  character  for 
"  hundred."  His  single  sheet  prints  and  books  are  not  so  numerous 
at  this  day.  He  had  countless  pupils  through  the  many  periods  of 
his  life,  of  whom  Hokkei  is  the  best  known. 

A  young  gentleman  in  grey,  with  a  straw  hat,  is  a  fine  sample 
of  his  Sori  paintings,  now  owned  by  Mr.  Freer.  The  painting 
of  six  tall  figures  walking  among  cherry  trees,  also  Mr.  Freer's,  is 
the  finest  example  of  his  1802  type,  and  shows  from  what  pictorial 
facts  in  landscape  detail  the  peculiar  touches  upon  his  many  contem- 
porary prints  were  taken.  His  interview  between  a  scholar  and  a 
priest  is  about  1807.  A  rare  example  of  Hokusai's  painting  during 
his  Mangwa  period  is  the  very  fine  girl  under  a  cherry  tree,  of  about 
18 1 8,  also  Mr.  Freer's.  A  book  illustration  of  about  1826  shows 
his  return  to  continuous  decorative  line  ;  while  the  great  panel 
painting  on  silk,  of  villagers  starting  out  across  a  river  for  a  picnic, 
now  owned  by  Mr.  Freer,  is  the  finest  example  of  his  highly  coloured 
work  of  1830.  The  patterns  on  the  dresses  are  wonderfully  worked 
out.  His  rich  landscapes  of  1835  ^^^  ^^^^  illustrated  by  the  splendid 
colour  prints  of  the  Fuji  series  (36  views).  His  most  carefully  drawn 
book  designs  in  ink  are  of  this  date.  His  finest  late  work  in  painting 
is  the  descent  of  the  Thunder  God. 


One  more  great  artist  of  this  school  must  be  conspicuously  mentioned. 
Hiroshige  had  been  a  pupil  of  Toyoharu's  brother,  Toyohiro,  before  18 10. 
He  worked  largely  on  figure  prints  before  1820.  But  after  that  date  the 
growing  desire  for  illustrated  guide  books  led  him  to  devote  all  his 
energies  to  printing  large  landscapes  in  colour,  which  were  issued  in 
"series  of  views,"  of  the  Tokaido,  of  Yedo,   the  Kisokaido,    etc.,    from 


204     EPOCHS    OF   CHINESE   AND  JAPANESE   ART 

1820  to  1840.  His  first  great  series  of  the  Tokaido  was  issued  probably 
about  1825.  Besides  these  landscapes,  he  made  countless  coloured 
prints  of  flowers,  fishes  and  birds.  His  figures  of  1830  are  almost 
as  dignified  as  Hokusai's.  Still  it  is  as  a  landscapist  that  we  must 
put  him  first  in  Ukiyoye.  It  is  on  account  of  the  excellence  in  landscape 
of  the  two  men,  Hokusai  and  Hiroshige,  that  we  must  allow  a 
subordinate  aesthetic  culmination  to  attach  to  the  decade  1830-40. 
But  Hiroshige's  devotion  to  landscape  is  more  single,  and  his  realistic 
success  greater.  Without  any  special  personal  deflections  of  line 
system  or  notan  scheme,  he  just  translated  into  a  few  simple  and  well- 
balanced  tones  the  views  which  his  native  land  presented.  Here  we 
have  a  frank  blue  for  the  sky,  a  deeper  blue  for  water,  clear  grass  and 
tree  greens,  wood  tones  of  stems  and  buildings,  the  flashing  of  bright 
costumes  in  small  spots.  His  impressions  are  so  true  that,  even 
after  the  changes  of  sixty  years,  one  can  recognise  to-day  much  of 
the  topography  of  individual  scenes.  He  did  not  use  firmly  flat 
colours,  but  had  learned  how  to  grade  a  broad  wash  upon  the  block, 
thus  giving  modulation  to  sky  tone,  a  privilege  often  abused  by  his 
contemporaries  and  his  own  printers  of  late  editions.  Fine  warm 
evening  sky  tones  lie  along  his  horizons.  As  a  painter  of  night  he 
is  without  a  rival,  save  Whistler.  As  is  well  known.  Whistler  built 
his  nocturnal  impressions  upon  Hiroshige's  suggestions.  In  special 
atmospheric  effects,  such  as  moonlight,  snow,  mist  and  rain,  he  achieved 
variety  of  effects  such  as  neither  Greek  nor  modern  European  art 
had  ever  known.  He  was  an  arch-impressionist  before  Monet.  It 
has  been  asserted  by  some  European  writers  that  the  bulk  of  the 
Hiroshiges  which  we  know  were  the  product  of  three  separate  men. 
It  has  also  been  specifically  added  that  all  the  upright  designs  in 
prints  are  by  the  second  Hiroshige.  This  is  absurd.  For  though 
it  is  true  that  the  "  wide  "  landscape  sheet  tends  to  prevail  in  his 
earlier  work  (1825-30),  there  is  no  uniformity  in  this  respect,  as  any 
one  can  see  by  comparing  his  growing  looseness  of  writing  in  his 
signature.  A  complete  series  could  be  shown  from  1825  to  1850 
at  least,  in  which  it  is  evident  that  the  same  man  is  slowly  changing 
his  style.  We  mark  the  same  change  in  his  paintings.  In  general  his 
drawing  becomes  more  careless  after  1835,  but  the  truth  of  his  colour 
values  goes  on  increasing  up  to  1845.  ^^^  paintings  of  1850  and 
after  are  weak.     Doubtless  there  was  a  second   Hiroshige,  but  his  works 


MODERN    PLEBEIAN    ART   IN    YEDO  205 

comprise  only  a  few  and  very  bad  ones  done  about  i860,  when  all  colour 
printing  was  "going  to  the  dogs."  It  would  not  be  in  proportion  to 
record  the  names  of  artists  who  followed  that  date. 

Of  illustrations,  the  nearest  to  Toyohiro's  manner  is  the  great 
Riogoku  bridge  at  Yedo,  done  perhaps  before  1825.  The  cloud  effect 
about  the  moon  is  fine.  Of  the  first  great  Tokaido  set,  the  mist 
effect  at  Mishima  (between  Fuji  and  the  sea)  is  one  of  the  most 
striking.  What  traveller  in  Japan  among  the  Hakone  mountains,  or 
at  Nikko,  has  not  seen  just  such  effects  .''  The  great  shopping  street 
of  Honcho  by  moonlight,  where  the  unseen  moon  throws  heavy 
shadows  of  the  strollers  upon  the  ground,  is  an  upright  masterpiece 
of  about  1835.  T^^  ^°^  scene  at  night  is  of  about  1840.  His 
view  of  Tsukabayama,  under  cherries,  of  about  1845,  ^^  ^  perfect 
specimen    of  his    late    realistic    drawing. 

Associated  with  Hiroshige  as  a  landscape  printer  between  1825 
and  1840  is  Yeisen,  the  pupil  of  Yeizan.  His  great  night  scene 
of  the    pond    at    Uyeno    Park    is    like    an    early  Hiroshige. 


Such  is  our  brief  outline  sketch  of  Ukiyoye,  a  branch  of  Japanese 
art  important  because  so  near  to  us,  and  so  accessible  for  study. 
But,  if  we  take  it  in  relation  to  its  historical  antecedents,  we  have  to 
admit  that,  with  all  its  merit,  it  is  only  one  of  several  leading 
plebeian  Tokugawa  schools,  which,  with  the  aristocratic  Tokugawa 
schools,  compose  only  the  fifth,  and  that  probably  the  aesthetic  lowest, 
of  Japanese  periods.  Moreover,  Japanese  art  as  a  whole  is  only  a 
section    of  East    Asiatic    art. 


,^-^^m 


Masanobu  :   Courtesan  with  a  Servant.      Ha)ul-ti)itcd 
with  red, yellow,  brown,  black,  and  gold-dust.    On  a  mica 
ground.     Medium  size. 
Royal  Print  Room,  Dresden. 


Examples  of  "  Kake-mono-ye. 
By  Harunobu. 


■J  >^ 


KAKKMOXO-Yli. 

By  Koriusai. 


Print. 

By  Katsukawa  Shunsho. 


v^''^!^    '^BEI^^^^I 

m^  1^^ 

Bi^'^''^^I^^BBB  i 

^wi 

Im 

:^  -j^4BB 

^^HL- 

^-j^^^^m 

U^A^'' 

ii . .  - 

^'^BP" 

Four  Prints. 
By  Kiyonaga 


Four  Prints.     Bv  Kivonasa. 


Colour  Print,  "Ox  a  Balconv."     B\- Shunmann. 


HoKUPAi :  The  Wave.     From  the 
\'c\"cr  Collection,  Paris. 


Thirty-six  Views  of  Fuji."     Diptych. 


HoKUSAi :  Fuji  in  Fixe  Weather  from  the  Sotth.      The  reil  mountain, 
with  its  snow-capped  peak,  melts  gradually  into  the  green  of  the  lower 
part.     The  blue  sky,  against  which  the  white   clouds  are    relieved,   is 
darkest  at  the  top.     From  the  "Thirty-six  Views  of  Fuji."     Diptych. 
Koechlin  Collection,  Paris. 


Night  ox  the  Kamo  River,  Kioto. 
B}-  Hiroshige. 


I'nder  Sumida  Bridge.     By  Hiroshigd. 


Ghost  Foxes.     By  Hiroshige. 


NOTES 

VOLUME    I. 
CHAPTER  I. 

Note  i  (page  9). — The  representation  of  the  human  figure  is  not  lacking  on  the 
old  vases  of  the  Chou  Dynasty,  and  as  Fenollosa's  first  chapter  comprises  a  period 
extending  from  3000  to  250  B.C.,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  end  of  the  Chou  period,  it  is 
necessary  to  note  that  his  assertion  is  too  sweeping.  Laufer,  in  his  Chinese  Pottery 
of  the  Han  Dynasty  (Leyden,  Brill,  1909),  pp.  150,  151,  quoting  from  the  Hsi-Ching- 
ku-chien,  mentions  the  bronze  vase  known  as  pat  shou  tou  (toti  with  a  hundred 
animals),  which  is  decorated  with  hunting-scenes,  among  them  the  subject  he  calls : 
The  Hunter  and  the  animals.  Laufer's  observations,  and  the  reproduction  he  gives, 
show  that  at  this  period,  human  as  well  as  animal  forms  had  been  freely  treated, 
and  that  a  conventional  decorative  type  had  already  been  evolved.  This  seems  to 
indicate  that  the  human  form  had  been  treated  no  less  than  the  animal  form  in 
periods  anterior  to  the  Chou  Dynasty,  in  the  time  of  the  Shang  emperors.  We 
know  now  that  the  decorative  conventionalisation  of  forms  follows  realistic 
representation,  and  never  precedes  it  (cf.  E.  Grosse,  Die  Anfdnge  der  Kunst, 
Freiburg  and  Leipzig,  1894;  Haddon,  Evolution  in  Art,  London,  1895  ;  H.  Stolpe, 
Studier  i  Amerikansk  Ornamentik,  Stockholm,  1896).  It  follov/s  that  Chinese 
decorative  convention,  as  manifested  in  the  fao-tieh  and  elsewhere,  where  the 
elements  of  the  human  figure  are  recognisable,  conjoined  with  this  document,  which 
bears  witness  to  the  long  persistence  of  a  primitive  motive,  demonstrates  the  fact 
that  the  human  figure  was  represented  at  a  very  early  period,  and  even  at  the  first 
inception  of  Chinese  art. 

Note  2  (page  10). — The  dragon,  associated  with  the  still  water  of  lakes,  with  rivers, 
the  sea,  clouds,  rain,  and  thunder,  constitutes  a  myth  which  is  practically  universal. 
Again,  the  long-nosed  Chinese  and  Japanese  masks  are  derived  from  the  tengu  or 
reptile-killing  bird,  as  opposed  to  the  ndga  or  the  dragon.  The  fabulous  reptile- 
killing  bird  is  another  universal  myth.  It  is  therefore  not  surprising  to  find  in  the 
most  diverse  parts  of  the  globe  representations  of  these  types,  which  demonstrate  the 
essential  unity  of  the  human  mind. 

Note  3  (page  1 1). — The  Po  ku  fti  In  was  compiled  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  Kin  shih  so,  is,  however,  very  much  later.  It  was  published  in  1821  by 
the  two  brothers  Feng  Yiin-p'eng  and  Feng  Yiin-yiian.  These  two  important  works 
are  devoted  to  the  study  of  Chinese  antiquities,  and  divided  into  several  sections. 

Note  4  (passim). — The  affinities  established  by  Fenollosa  in  this  chapter  between 
the  essential  characteristics  of  Chinese  art  in  the  early  periods  and  the  art  of  Peru,  of 

VOL.  II.  O 


2o8  NOTES 

Central  America,  of  Alaska  and  of  Hawaii,  Micronesia  and   Macronesia,  Formosa 
and  ancient  Japan,   lead  one  to  trace  the  limits  of  the  area  of  dispersion  of  what  he 
calls  the  "  Art  of  the  Pacific."     These  considerations  are  highly  interesting,  and  the 
fact  that  they  are  here   formulated   for  the  first   time  gives  a  value  to  Fenollosa's 
posthumous  book  which  will  be  appreciated  by  all  scholars.      It  is  indisputable  that 
the  decorative   method,  and    notably  a    psychological   tendency   to    distribute  the 
elements  of  figures,  which  is   characteristic  of  the   decoration   of  archaic  Chinese 
bronzes,  reappears  in  the  area  of  dispersion  in  the  Pacific  where   Fenollosa  notes 
it.     But  in  the   form  in  which  he  presents  it  to  us   it  is   impossible  to  accept  his 
theory  of  affinity.      Had   Fenollosa  known  certain  works  by  specialists,  particularly 
A.  de  Quatrefage's  book  on  Les  Polynesiens  et  leurs  Migrations  (Paris,  1866),  he 
would  never  have  compared  Polynesian  art,  which,  in  its  present  form,  cannot  date 
from  an  earlier  period  than  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth  century,  with  Chinese  art 
anterior    even    to  the   Chou  period,    putting    forward   the    hypothesis   of   possible 
influences  from  the  Pacific  exercised  upon  China.    Of  the  various  points  in  which  he 
noted  elements  comparable  to  those  of  the  Chinese   decorative  system,  the  earliest 
belonged  to  Central  America.     Now  the  civilisation  of  the  Inca  of  Peru  dated  only 
from  the  twelfth  century.     As  to  the  predecessors  of   the    Mexicans,  we    cannot 
accept  an  earlier  date  than  the  seventh  or  eighth  century  for  the  period  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Toltec  civilisation.      It  was  succeeded  by  that  of  the  Chichimec,  and 
the  Aztec  Empire  did  not  arise  till  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century  (cf.  Beuchat, 
Manuel  d' Archeologie  americaine,  Paris,  1912).     Under  these  circumstances,  affinities 
between  the  art  of  the  Pacific  and  the  Chinese  art  of  from  3000  to  250  years  B.C.  on 
the  lines  suggested  by  Fenollosa  are  inadmissible.      If  a  certain  relation  may  be 
traced  between  the  art  of  the  Pacific  and  the  Chinese  art  of  the  early  period,  it  is  only 
to  be  accounted  for  by  some  obscure  influence  exercised  by  China  on  Malaysia  and 
perhaps  on  Central  America  at  a  relatively  late  period.     This,  however,  is  merely 
an  hypothesis  which  may  serve  as  a  starting-point  for   interesting  researches,  but 
cannot  be  accepted  as  a  conclusion.     It  follows  that  what  is  said  in  the  first  chapter  as  to 
the  origins  of  ornamental  forms  cannot  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the  one  current 
of  influence  the  existence  of  which  may  be  hypothetically  advanced  :  one  setting  from 
the  Asiatic  continent  to  Malaysia,  Polynesia  and  New  Zealand.     Fenollosa's  aesthetic 
analyses  are  nevertheless  to  be  retained ;  they  point  the  way  to  researches  which 
may  some  day  throw  light  on  a  complex  problem  by  no  means  easy  of  solution. 


CHAPTER    II. 

Note  1  (page  17). — The  question  of  the  origin  of  the  name  China  is  still  in  dispute. 
It  has  lately  been  re-examined  by  B.  Laufer  (cf.  The  Name  China,  T'oung  Pao, 
December,  1912)  and  P.  Pelliot  (cf.  L'Origine  dii  Nom  de  Chine,  idem).  Laufer, 
accepting  the  pronouncement  of  Jacobi,  who  declares  that  he  found  the  name 
Cina  mentioned  by  a  Sanskrit  writer  of  300  years  B.C.,  completely  abandons  the 
etymology  Ts'in.     He  compares  the  name  Cina  or  Tsina,  which  was  in  use  along 


NOTES  209 

the  maritime  route  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  with  the  names  Seres  and  Scrike,  by  which 
China  was  known  in  the  western  regions.  He  concludes  that  there  are  two  groups 
of  names,  one  continental,  the  other  maritime,  and  that  the  word  Cina  was  an 
ancient  Malay  term  of  the  coast  of  Kuan-Tung,  in  use  before  the  Chinese  settled 
in  this  district. 

Pelliot,  for  his  part,  upholds  the  ancient  etymology  of  Cina  from  Ts'in.  He  does 
not  consider  that  the  date  of  the  Sanskrit  text  on  which  Jacobi  relies  is  established 
beyond  dispute.  Further,  he  thinks  the  relation  of  Cina  to  Ts'in  should  be 
maintained,  even  if  the  date  put  forward  by  Jacobi  be  accepted.  And  again,  even 
were  it  proved  that  the  word  Cina  has  been  applied  to  populations  other  than  the 
Chinese,  we  should  have  to  enquire  into  the  possibility  of  a  fusion  between  a 
somewhat  vague  denomination  of  Himalayan  tribes  and  the  Chinese  word  Ts'in. 
Finally,  there  are  Chinese  texts  which  show  that  in  the  time  of  the  Han  dynasty 
the  Chinese  were  known  among  the  Hsiung-nu  of  Central  Asia  by  the  designation 
"  Men  of  Ts'in." 

We  see  therefore  that  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  word  Cina  is  not  yet 
decided,  and  we  must  needs  accept  Pelliot's  conclusion,  and  wait  until  one  of  the 
documents  found  on  the  ancient  route  of  the  Lob  reveals  to  us  the  exact  name 
borne  by  China  there  at  the  dawn  of  our  era  (cf.  H.  Jacobi,  Kidtiirsprach  und 
Literarhistorisches  aus  dem  Kantillya. — Sitzungsbericht  der  Kon.  Preuss.  Acad, 
der  Wissenschaft,  1911.— Laufer,  The  Name  China,  and  P.  Pelliot,  L'Origine  du 
Norn  de  Chine,  in  Toung  Pao,  December,  1912).  It  must  also  be  noted,  with 
regard  to  Ser  or  Seres,  that  this  is  not,  as  FenoUosa  supposes,  an  ethnical  term.  It  is 
derived  from  the  Chinese  word  ssu,  meaning  silk,  and  the  r  in  it  is  justified  by 
modern  Korean,  Chinese,  and  Manchu  forms.  At  least,  this  is,  so  far,  the  derivation 
which  seems  most  plausible,  and  is  most  widely  accepted. 

Nor,  finally,  is  it  correct  to  say  that  China,  identified  under  her  double  name 
of  Cina  or  Seres,  was  not  generally  known  in  Europe  until  the  seventeenth  century. 
Marco  Polo,  who  knew  the  country  under  the  name  of  Khitai,  indicates  its  unity 
very  clearly.  He  had,  indeed,  been  able  to  appreciate  this  in  the  course  of  his 
voyages,  for  he  had  visited  the  North,  as  well  as  the  Southern  provinces.  Further, 
his  knowledge  of  India  enabled  him  to  define  Indian  relations  with  this  region  (cf. 
Marco  Polo,  ed.  Yule,  London,  1875). 

Note  2  (page  20).— The  works  published  since  Fenollosa  wrote  these  pages  have 
fully  confirmed  his  opinion.  I  will  merely  note  the  results  of  certain  of  these.  Salomon 
Reinach's  study  of  the  Flying  Gallop  {Galop  Volant),  in  the  Revue  Archeologique 
(Paris,  1901),  demonstrated  the  adoption  in  China  of  a  method  of  representing  the 
gallop  which  seems  to  have  been  derived  from  early  Asia  and  Central  Asia. 
M.  Reinach  has  also  pointed  out  that  the  horses  of  Bactria,  sent  to  China  either 
as  tribute,  or  at  the  instance  of  Imperial  officials,  were  represented  on  the  bas- 
reliefs  of  Han  times.  Hirth,  in  Ueber  fremde  Einflilssc  in  der  Chinesischen  Kunst, 
Leipzig,  1896,  has  shown  that  the  decoration  of  the  Greek  mirrors  of  Bactria  was 
reproduced  on  the  Chinese  mirrors  of  the  Han  period.  Chavannes  {Journal 
Asiatique,  IX.,  S.  vol.  VIII.,  pp.  529  ^t  ^e^/.,  1896)  upholds  the  theory,  apparently 
well  founded,  of  a  transformation  in  the  fabulous  type  of  the  Chinese  Phoenix,  which, 

o2 


210  NOTES 

in  the  period  of  the  Hans,  passed  from  the  pheasant  form  peculiar  to  ancient  China 
to  a  form  closely  akin  to  the  Persian  bird,  Simurgh.  Finally,  Laufer,  in  Chinese 
Pottery  of  the  Han  Dynasty,  has  carefully  examined  all  the  problems  presented  in 
the  study  of  the  decoration  of  Chinese  pottery  in  the  Han  period. 

Note  3  (page  23). — The  subject  on  the  lids  of  these  jars  shows,  in  the  middle,  three 
mountain  peaks,  one  of  which  rises  high  above  the  others.  They  are  surrounded 
by  waves,  the  conventionalised  form  of  which  is  carried  right  round  the  lid.  This 
seems  almost  certainly  to  be  a  representation  of  the  Island  of  the  Blest  or  of  the 
Immortals,  "  beyond  the  sea."  Although  we  know  of  no  Chinese  text  which  alludes 
to  these  jars,  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  they  are  funerary  objects.     Pages   168  to 

211  of  Laufer's  Chinese  Pottery  of  the  Han  Dynasty  will  be  read  with  much  interest 
in  this  connection. 

Note  4  (page  25). — Here  Fenollosa  follows  Bushell  in  determining  the  dates  of  the 
bas-reliefs  of  the  Han  period.  It  is  now  proved  that  Bushell's  conclusions  were 
erroneous  and  that  the  bas-reliefs  date  from  the  second  and  third  centuries  after 
Christ. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Note  i  (page  37). — Fenollosa's  opinion  as  to  the  priority  of  the  Pali  Canon,  which 
was  generally  accepted  when  he  wrote,  can  no  longer  be  maintained.  The  discoveries 
made  in  Central  Asia  during  the  last  few  years  have  modified  the  whole  question. 
Dutreuil  de  Rhyns  and  Petrowsky  brought  back  the  two  halves  of  a  Dhammapada 
written  in  a  very  ancient  alphabet,  and  composed  in  a  Sanskrit  dialect.  After  them, 
Sir  Aurel  Stein,  Griinwedel,  von  Lecoq,  and  Pelliot  have  made  contributions  of  the 
highest  interest,  the  examination  of  which  has  barely  begun.  But  already  it  has 
yielded  Sanskrit  versions  of  the  texts  which  hitherto  had  belonged  exclusively  to  the 
Pali  Canon. 

This  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  this  was  no  unique,  privileged  Canon,  peculiar  to 
the  School  of  the  South,  and  of  the  greatest  antiquity,  but  that  other  Canons,  no  less 
rich  and  methodical,  formed  the  basis  of  the  texts  of  the  Northern  School,  Canons 
showing  intrinsic  evidences  of  antiquity  which  make  it  impossible  to  consider  them 
posterior  to  the  Pali  Canon.  The  Sanskrit  or  Northern  Canon,  moreover,  appears 
to  be  extremely  complex,  and  can  no  longer  be  considered  homogeneous  ;  it  contains 
elements  as  ancient  as  the  Pali  Canon,  and  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  it 
is  impossible  to  affirm  the  priority  of  the  one  to  the  other.  Those  who  wish  to  form 
a  clear  idea  of  the  question  as  rapidly  as  possible  should  read  Sylvain  Levi's  Les 
Saintes  Ecritures  dti  Buddhisme,  comment  s'est  constitue  le  Canon  sacre,  in  the 
Conferences  du  Musee  Guimet,  1909,  Paris. 

Note  2  (pages  32 — 35). — M.  A.  Foucher's  studies  have  settled  the  question  of  the 
iconographic  type  of  Buddha.  They  show  how  the  representation  of  Buddha  was 
evolved  from  the  combination  of  the  monkish  type  and  the  princely  type.  Buddha 
took  the  robe  of  the  monk,  but  he  retained  the  head-dress  of  the  prince,  and  instead 
of  the  shaven  crown  of  the  bhikshu  he  has  the  high  chignon  of  the  Indian  noble.     This 


NOTES  211 

fusion  took  place  in  the  Hellenistic  workshops  of  Gandhara,  where  the  traditions 
which  fettered  the  representations  of  the  purely  Indian  workshops  had  not  the  same 
force.  Scarcely  had  it  been  created,  indeed,  when  the  Buddha  type  of  the  Gandharan 
workshops  seems  to  have  been  adopted  by  the  whole  of  India.  (See  A.  Foucher,  Les 
Debuts  de  VArt  houddliiqiie  ;  Journal  Asiatique,  1912,  and  L'Art  greco-boitddhique 
du  Gandhara,  Leroux,  Paris,  1905.) 

Note  3  (page  37). — The  writing  brush  was  invented  by  MengT'ien  (general  under 
Ch'in  Shih  Huang-ti),  who  died  in  210  B.C.  As  early  as  this,  writing  with  a  brush 
upon  silk  was  practised.  The  invention  and  use  of  paper  followed  closely  upon 
this  important  modification  of  the  process  of  writing. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Note  i  (page  48). — The  ancient  Korean  state  of  Paik-tjyel  (in  the  Japanese 
transcription  Hakusai  or  Kudara  or  Benkan,  in  the  Chinese  transcription  Pai-tsi) 
occupied  the  territory  which  is  now  the  province  of  Seoul,  in  the  centre  and  on  the 
western  slope  of  Korea. 

Note  2  (page  58). — The  Sarson  sect  is  a  Buddhist  sect  introduced  into  Japan  by 
the  bonze  Ekwan,  who  came  from  Korea  in  625.  His  principal  doctrines  were  based 
upon  the  waitings  of  Maudgalyayana  and  Nagarjuna.  As  the  sect  professed  to  pro- 
pagate the  teachings  of  the  life  of  Sakya  Muni,  it  was  also  known  as /c/zf-^a-«-^jd-s/z?^. 
It  was  eventually  divided  into  two  sections  :  the  Gwankoji-ha  and  the  Taianji-ha. 
Both  have  long  disappeared. 

Note  3  (page  62). — Sojo  is  a  Buddhist  title  corresponding  to  that  of  bishop. 
The  work  in  question  here  is  a  portrait  of  one  of  the  mitred  abbots  of  Horiuji. 

Note  4  (page  62). — The  explorations  in  Central  Asia  have  brought  to  light 
representations  of  the  four  Buddhist  kings  of  the  four  cardinal  points  closely  akin  to 
that  mentioned  by  Fenollosa.  It  is  a  type  common  to  the  whole  of  Eastern  Turkestan. 
Numerous  examples  occur  in  von  Le  Coq's  fine  plates  of  Chotscho  (Berlin,  191 3). 

Note  5  (page  64). — Here  FenoUosa's  chronology  is  incorrect.  Kamatari  was 
certainly  born  in  614.  He  was  therefore  fifteen  when  the  Emperor  Jomei  came  to 
the  throne,  and  twenty-seven  at  his  death.  It  was  during  the  three  reigns  of  Kotoku, 
Saimei,  and  Tenchi  {i.e.  from  646  to  the  year  of  his  death,  669)  that  he  took  an 
active  part  in  affairs  of  state,  under  the  title  of  Naijin. 


CHAPTER   V. 

Note  i  (pages  77— 85).— These  observations  are  the  outcome  of  the  period  at 
which  the  chapter  was  written.  It  is  obvious  that  Fenollosa  would  have  completed 
it,  had  he  been  able  to  acquire  an  adequate  knowledge  of  the  researches  which  have 
substituted  exact  information  for  suppositions  more  or  less  well  founded.  First  in 
order  was  the  attempt  of  Griinwedel  to  establish  the  purely  Indian  character  of 
the  Hellenistic  bas-reliefs  of  Gandhara.     His  work  Buddhistische  Kunst  in  Itidien 


212  NOTES 

appeared  in  1893.  In  1901  Burgess  published  an  English  edition  of  it,  to  which  his 
own  very  important  additions  gave  a  new  character  (Buddhist  Art  in  India,  by 
A.  Griinwedel.  Translated  by  A.  C.  Gibson  ;  revised  and  enlarged  by  J.  Burgess, 
London,  1901).  Finally,  in  1905  A.  Foucher  issued  the  first  volume  of  his  Art  greco- 
honddhiquc  du  Gandhara,  in  which  he  carries  the  study  of  the  problem  so  far,  that 
he  has  left  but  scanty  gleanings  relating  to  matters  of  detail  for  further  research. 

All  these  works  have  finally  solved  the  question  of  the  constitution  of  Greco- 
Buddhist  art  in  the  Hellenistic  workshops  of  Gandhara.  Further,  the  explorations 
carried  out  in  Chinese  Turkestan  have  shown  how  Buddhist  preachers  brought 
Gandharan  models  to  Khotan  by  way  of  the  long  line  of  oases  scattered  among  the 
K'un-lun  hills.  Moreover,  the  Nestorians  and  Manichaeans,  driven  eastward  by 
Byzantine  persecution,  and  coming  into  contact  with  China  proper,  brought  into 
Eastern  Turkestan  a  number  of  elements  from  earlier  Asia.  If  the  Hellenistic  art 
of  Gandhara,  intermingled  as  it  was  with  Sassanian  and  Bactrian  elements,  made 
its  influence  felt  in  Northern  China,  in  Korea  and  in  Japan,  it  was  at  the  price  of 
transforming  itself  as  it  advanced  towards  the  East.  It  is  quite  legitimate  to  speak 
of  Hellenistic  influences  on  the  art  of  Northern  Wei,  of  Korea,  and  of  Japan 
in  the  fifth,  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  but  it  must  be  understood  that  these 
influences  were  already  remote.  Khotan  seems  to  have  been  the  extreme  eastern 
boundary  of  Gandharan  art  properly  so  called.  We  are  in  the  presence  of  an 
artistic  school,  which,  having  created  the  iconographic  types  of  Buddhism,  prolonged 
certain  influences  in  consequence  of  the  immobility  of  religious  images  ;  we  are  not 
face  to  face  with  a  vivifying  inspiration  comparable  to  the  influence  of  Greek  art  on 
European  art.  We  see  rather  the  last  ripples  of  a  distant  wave,  the  waters  of  which 
are  arrested  at  the  limits  of  the  oriental  world. 

Note  2  (page  79). — When  the  head  of  a  Gandharan  Buddhist  figure  is  surmounted 
by  a  serpent,  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  a  naga  is  suggested.  When  he  speaks 
of  those  monarchs  or  warriors  whose  heads  arej^^surmounted  by  a  serpent,  Fenollosa 
seems  to  be  alluding  either  to  those  iVaga-kings  who  figure  so  frequently  in 
Gandharan  bas-reliefs,  or  to  simple  Nagas  evoked  in  connection  with  some 
characteristic  scene.  The  reader  will  find  representations  and  explanations  of  these 
scenes  in  A.  Foucher's  UArt  greco-houddhique  du  Gandhara. 

Note  3  (page  84). — The  idea  that  the  Byzantine  Emperors  were  in  communication 
with  the  Emperor  T'ai  Tsung,  and  proposed  that  he  should  enter  into  an  alliance 
with  them  against  the  Mahometans,  has  no  historic  basis.  Chinese  history  has  pre- 
served a  record  of  an  embassy  sent  in  638  to  the  Emperor  of  China  by  the  Persian 
King,  Yezdegerd.  The  latter,  vanquished  by  the  Arabs,  who  had  invaded  Persia 
and  penetrated  to  the  north  of  the  Oxus,  had  fled  to  Merv,  whence  he  implored  the 
help  of  T'ai  Tsung.  We  do  not  know  how  his  request  was  received.  When  T'ai 
Tsung  had  been  entreated  by  the  inhabitants  of  Samarcand  on  several  occasions  to 
intervene  against  the  Arabs,  he  had  replied  that  they  were  too  far  away,  and  that  he 
could  not  protect  them.  He  probably  made  a  similar  reply  to  the  envoys  of 
Yezdegerd,  who  was  definitively  conquered  and  killed  in  642.  It  was  probably  this 
episode  of  Persian  history  which  Fenollosa  confounded  with  Byzantine  history. 

Note  4  (page  87). —  Wado  is  the  name  of  a«e«-go  (708 — 715).   Yoro  also  (717 — 724). 


NOTES  213 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Note  i  (page  119  et  seq). — Fenollosa  seems  here  not  to  have  taken  into  account 
the  constitution  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  Schools  in  China  during  the  T'ang  period. 
Indeed,  the  example  on  which  he  relies,  certainly  painted  very  much  later  than  he 
supposes,  sufficiently  explains  his  error.  Chinese  books  give  us  a  very  precise 
account  of  the  constitution  of  the  two  schools,  and  these  texts,  far  from  being 
modern,  date  from  the  Sung  period.  Further,  neither  the  School  of  the  North 
nor  that  of  the  South  was  official  ;  they  represent  two  tendencies  rather  than  a 
firmly  established  tradition  which  would  justify  the  use  of  the  term  School. 

In  its  beginnings,  the  School  of  the  North,  as  represented  by  Li  Ssij-hsun  and 
Li  Chao-tao,  was  characterised  by  delicate  lines  and  violent  colours.  Later,  it 
acquired  that  vigour  of  line  which,  conjoined  with  violence  of  tone,  gave  it  such 
individuality  at  the  end  of  the  Sung  and  during  the  Yiian  period.  As  to  the  style 
of  Wang  Wei,  it  consisted  of  a  very  supple  and  varied  line  combined  with  a  very 
sober  use  of  colour.  The  tints  were  light  and  discreet,  and  the  technique  often 
became  that  of  a  monochrome  in  Indian  ink.  There  was  a  great  difference  between 
this  monochrome  painting  and  the  Btinjingwa  or  "  Painting  of  the  literati "  (in 
Chinese,  Wen-jen-hua)  to  which  Fenollosa  alludes.  This  painting,  with  its 
calligraphic  style,  is  totally  different  in  character.  It  summarises  forms  by  an 
abstract  line,  which  gives  a  very  remote  synthesis  of  things.  It  has  never  been 
proposed  to  father  it  upon  Wang  Wei,  whose  mind  was  set  on  problems  of  aerial 
perspective  and  the  relative  value  of  tones. 

Wang  Wei  also  practised  the  painting  known  as  Lii-ch'ing.  It  consists  in  the 
use  of  a  malachite  green,  which  merges  into  lapis  lazuli  blues  as  the  planes  recede, 
and  as  the  mountains,  set  screen-wise  one  behind  the  other,  lose  their  individual 
colour  and  appear  veiled  in  the  blues  of  the  atmospheric  strata.  The  British 
Museum  owns  a  fine  landscape  of  this  kind,  painted  in  the  manner  of  Wang  Wei, 
and  attributed  to  the  great  painter  of  the  Yiians,  Chao  Meng-fu. 

I  must  add  that  the  work  of  Wang  Wei  seems  to  be  completely  lost.  We  can 
form  an  idea  of  it  only  by  means  of  replicas  or  copies.  This  is  enough  to  show  that 
the  traditional  attribution  of  certain  paintings  in  Japan  to  Wang  Wei  is  baseless. 
The  same  must  be  said  of  the  attribution,  accepted  by  Fenollosa  in  his  book,  of 
certain  paintings  to  Wu  Tao-tzu.  But  this  chapter  has  nevertheless  a  very  special 
interest,  in  that  it  presents  to  Europeans  the  conceptions  of  ancient  Japanese 
criticism  in  relation  to  the  early  Chinese  masters. 

Note  2  (pages  126 — 129). — ^Here  again  Fenollosa  reveals  to  us  the  point  of  view  of 
Japanese  archjeologists  of  the  old  school,  with  whom  he  had  been  brought  in  contact. 
These  data  are  of  the  greatest  interest,  and  must  certainly  be  taken  into  account. 
But  in  connection  with  the  subject  under  discussion,  the  scepticism  it  betrays  is  not 
well  founded.  The  study  of  certain  Chinese  collections,  such  as  that  of  the  former 
Viceroy,  Tuan-fang,  and  Mr.  Lo  Chen-yu,  of  Peking,  and  the  discoveries  made  by 
Sir  Aurel  Stein's  mission,  the  Griinwedel,  von  Le  Coq  and  Pelliot  missions  in 
Chinese   Turkestan   or  at   Tun-huang,   have  brought  to  light  a  large    number   of 


214  NOTES 

T'ang  paintings.  Some  few  among  these  are  very  fine,  and  may  be  described  as  of 
the  first  rank  ;  a  great  many  others  are  of  the  highest  interest  from  the  archaeological 
point  of  view.  I  may  add  that  certain  paintings  of  the  T'ang  period  have  arrived  in 
Europe  within  the  last  few  years.  At  the  Exhibition  in  the  Cernuschi  Museum  in 
Paris  in  1912,  M.  Chavannes  and  the  present  writer  were  able  to  establish  the 
incontestable  authenticity  of  three  examples,  all  of  the  greatest  artistic  merit.  (See 
Chavannes  and  Petrucci,  La  Peintitre  chinoise  an  Musee  Cernuschi,  Ars  Asiatica, 
premier  fascicule  (part  i.),  Van  Oest,  Paris  and  Brussels,  1913.) 

Note  3  (page  139). — There  is  a  mistake  here  which  should  be  rectified,  Dai-nichi- 
niorai  never  appears  in  the  form  of  a  Bodhisattva.  He  is  a  spiritual  Buddha  or  a 
Dhyani-Buddha.  He  is  the  first  of  the  Buddhas  of  the  Trikaya ;  he  corresponds 
to  Dharma,  or  Law,  in  the  Triratna ;  he  is  the  personification  of  essential 
intelligence  and  absolute  purity  ;  he  is  the  first  of  the  five  Dhyani- Buddhas,  and  has 
Samantabhadra  for  his  Dhyani-bodhisattva.  In  the  Shingon  sect  he  is  the  eternal 
and  uncreate  Buddha,  of  whom  all  the  remaining  Buddhas  are  but  emanations. 
Here,  even  more  emphatically  than  elsewhere,  he  held  the  highest  rank,  and  was 
certainly  never  designated  otherwise  than  as  a  Buddha. 


CHAPTER  Vin. 

Note  i  (page  141). — The  Taiho-ryoritsu,  already  mentioned  incidentally  on  p.  151 
of  the  present  volume,  is  a  code  which  was  promulgated  in  the  first  year  of  the  Taih5 
era,  i.e.,  in  701.  The  Emperor  Tenji  had  taken  the  initiative  in  appointing  a  com- 
mission for  the  purpose  of  collecting  all  the  laws  actually  in  use,  unifying  them,  and 
editing  them  in  an  official  and  definitive  form.  This  work  was  completed  in  670. 
As  the  capital  was  then  Shiga,  in  Omi,  the  code  became  known  as  the  Omi-ryo. 
It  was  finished  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Temmu  and  first  promulgated  in  that 
of  the  Empress  Jito,  in  689.  The  Emperor  Mommu  had  all  the  earlier  work 
recast  in  the  form  of  a  compact  body  of  laws.  This  was  accomplished  in  701.  On 
the  promulgation  of  the  code  in  this  same  year,  jurists  were  sent  into  all  the 
provinces  to  proclaim  and  elucidate  it.  The  Taiho  code  was  subjected  to  some 
slight  modifications  in  the  reign  of  the  Empress  Gensho  (715 — 724).  It  remained  in 
force,  save  for  some  variations  in  detail,  until  the  revolution  of  1868. 

Note  2  (pages  i5o  and  151). — Enryaku-ji  is  the  temple  founded  by  Dengyo- 
Daishi,  and  is  still  the  central  seat  of  the  Tendai  sect.  But  here  Fenollosa  alludes 
to  the  part  played  by  the  monks  of  Hiei-zan  in  the  history  of  Japan.  Many  other 
temples  rose  round  the  parent  building.  These  were  fortified,  and  Mount  Hiei-zan 
became  an  impregnable  fastness.  As  the  Imperial  power  declined,  the  audacity  of  the 
monks  increased.  They  armed  themselves,  and  maintained  a  body  of  troops  who 
became  the  terror  of  Kioto.  They  also  played  a  very  important  part  in  the  civil  wars 
of  the  feudal  period,  and  it  required  the  brutal  and  energetic  repressive  measures  of 
Nobunaga  to  bring  them  into  subjection.  In  1571  he  seized  the  temples,  burnt  them, 
and  massacred  all  the  bonzes.  Some  of  the  temples  were  rebuilt  subsequently,  but 
the  military  power  of  the  monks  of  Hiei-zan  had  been  finally  destroyed. 


NOTES  215 


Note  3  (page  167). — The  secular  origin  of  jScho's  art  is  not  perhaps  so  evident 
as  Fenollosa  beHeved.  Jocho  was  a  bonze  like  his  father  Kosho,  and  although  they 
are  the  heads  of  all  that  dynasty  of  sculptors  who  constitute  the  school  of  Nara, 
their  essentially  Buddhist  art  reveals  a  thoroughly  religious  inspiration. 


VOLUME    II. 
CHAPTER   X. 

Note  i  (page  6). — The  idea  that  Chinese  characters  have  two  senses,  one  natural 
and  realistic,  the  other  spiritual  and  metaphorical,  is  wide-spread.  It  has  been  put 
forward  in  certain  so-called  translations  of  the  Tao-te-king  by  heterodox  sinologists.  It 
is,  however,  entirely  mistaken,  and  when  we  see  it  accepted  without  question  by  a  mind 
of  such  distinction  as  that  of  Fenollosa,  it  seems  necessary  to  warn  the  reader  against 
such  theories.  As  a  fact,  the  ancient  Chinese  poets  had  ideas  of  what  they  wished 
to  say  no  less  clearly  defined  than  those  of  our  own  poets.  Characters  had  a 
very  precise  sense  in  their  minds.  If  their  poetry  has  become  difficult  to  understand 
occasionally,  both  to  Chinese  scholars  and  European  sinologists,  it  is  because  the 
allusions,  the  historical  conditions,  all  the  complex  elements  which  go  to  make  up  a 
poem,  have  been  lost  or  forgotten.  Hence  it  is  necessary  to  reconstitute  the  meaning 
by  a  study  which  overloads  the  artist's  free  and  precious  expression  with  commen- 
taries. But  the  characters  in  Chinese  poems  are  neither  more  nor  less  evocative 
than  the  words  in  our  own  poetry. 

Note  2  (page  8). — Chinese  texts  say  explicitly  that  Fan  K'uan  first  formed 
himself  on  the  style  of  Li  Ch'eng. 

Note  3  (pages  12 — 18). — These  fragments  are  taken  from  two  sources.  Some 
are  from  the  Treatise  on  Landscape-painting  written  by  Kuo  Hsi,  others  from  the 
Observations  on  Painting  published  by  Kuo  Ssu,  his  son,  which  are  supposed  to  have 
been  written  for  the  most  part  from  notes  left  by  Kuo  Hsi  himself.  In  any  case,  they 
all  reflect  Kuo  Hsi's  ideas.  I  do  not  know  where  Fenollosa  procured  the  Chinese  text 
from  which  the  translation  he  gives  in  his  book  was  made.  I  have  myself  compared 
this  with  the  original,  and  save  for  slight  variations  in  details,  which  may  be  due  to 
a  translator's  fancy,  the  translation  is  on  the  whole  sufficiently  accurate. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Note  i  (page  38). — The  following  are  the  exact  dates  of  these  three  reigns  : 
Kao  Tsung  ....         1127 — 1163. 

Nin  Tsung  ....         1195 — 1225. 

Li  Tsung  ....         1225 — 1261. 


NOTES 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

Note  i  (page  119). — The  following  is  the  correct  form  and  explanation  of  this 
table : 

Yeitoku  (1543 — 1590)  was  the  son  of  Kano  Shoyei.  Genshiro  is  merely  a 
personal  name  of  Yeitoku.     These  two  names  represent  one  and  the  same  person. 

Kano  Yeitoku  had  three  sons  :  Mitsunobu  (d.  1608),  Takanobu  (1570 — 1618),  and 
Yoshinobu. 

Mitsunobu  had  a  son,  Sadanobu,  who  died  childless. 

Takanobu,  brother  of  Mitsunobu,  had  three  sons  :  Tanyu  (1602— 1674),  the  eldest ; 
Naonobu  (1607— 1651),  the  second  ;  and  Yasunobu  (1608— 1683),  the  third. 

Lastly,  Tsunenobu  (1636— 1713)  was  the  son  of  Naonobu. 


GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER    NAMES* 


Abe-no-Nakamaro.     Japanese  writer  and  poet.     He  lived  from  701  to  770,  and  spent 

the  greater  part  of  his  hfe  in  China. 
Ahimi,  Kose.     Japanese  painter  of  the  9th  and  loth  centuries.     Son  of  Kose  Kanaoka. 
Akahito,  Yamabe-no.      Japanese  poet  of  the  8th  century.      He  shares  with  Hitomaru 

the  title  of  the  Sage  of  Poetry. 
Amoghavaj'ra.     Indian  monk.     He  followed  Vajrabodchi  to  China  in  719,  and  in  732 

succeeded  him  as  chief  of  the  Yogatcharya  school. 
Ariiy^,  Kose.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kose  school.     He  lived  in  the  14th  century. 
Asa.     Corean  prince  of  the  kingdom  of  Hiakusai  or  Kudara.     He  came  to  Japan  at  the 

end  of  the  6th  century.     The  portrait  of  Shotoku  Taishi  is  ascribed  to  him. 
ASANIGHA.     Buddhist  monk  and  preacher.     He  seems  to  have  lived  in  the  6th  century. 

He  was  a  native  of  Gandhara  and  the  founder  of  the  Yogatcharya  school,  and  left 

various  writings. 
AsHiKAGA  Takanji  (1305-1358)-     The  first  Shogun  of  the  Ashikaga  family.     He  held 

the  Shogunate  from  1338  to  1358. 
Ashikaga  Yoshimitsu   (1358-1408).     The  third  Shogun  of  the  Ashikaga  family.     He 

held  the  Shogunate  from  1367  to  1395.     Having  abdicated  in  favour  of  his  son,  and 

become  a  bonze,  he  caused  the  Kinkaku-ji  to  be  built. 
AwADAGUCHi  Takamitsu,  Tosa.     Japanese  painter  of  the  14th  century.     He  was  the 

son  of  Tosa  Mitsuaki. 

Bairei,  Kono.     Japanese  painter  of  the  igth  century. 

Beisen,  Kubota.     Contemporary  Japanese  painter. 

BoDHiDHARMA.     The  twenty-eighth  patriarch  of  Indian  Buddhism  and  the  first  of  Chinese 

Buddhism.     He  came  to  convert  China  in  520,  and  died  about  ten  years  later. 
BuNCHO,  Tani.     Japanese  painter  of  the  classical  school.     He  lived  from  1764  to  1841. 
BuNRiN,  Shiogawa.      Japanese  painter  of  the  middle  of  the  19th  century.      He  was 

a  pupil  of  Toyohiko. 
BusoN,  YosA.     Japanese  painter.     He  lived  from  171 6  to  1783. 

Chang  Seng-yu  {Chosoyo).  Chinese  painter  of  the  6th  century. 
Chao  Ch'ien-li  [Chosenri).  Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period. 
Chen  So-ung  {Chin  Shoo).  Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period. 
Ch'en  Tuan  [Kivazan  Inshi).      Philosopher,    alchemist   and  poet  of   the  period  of   the 

"  Five  Dynasties."     He  died  in  989. 
Ch'eng  Chung-fu  (Danshidzui).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Yuan  period  and  the  beginning 

of  the  Ming  period. 
Chikanobu,  Kano.     Japanese  painter  of  the  i8th  century,  the  son  of  Kano  Tsunenobu. 
Chin  Nan-ping.     Chinese  painter  of  the  1 8th  century.     He  worked  in  Japan,  and  exercised 

a  strong  influence  on  the  Japanese  painters  of  the  Chinese  tradition. 
Chisho  Daishi.     The  posthumous  name  of  the  monk  Enchin,  founder  of  the  Tendai  sect 

in  Japan.     He  lived  from  814  to  891. 

*  This  glossary  is  appended  by  Prof.  Petrucci.     The  Japanese  transliteration  of  old  Chinese 
names  adopted  by  the  late  Prof.  Fenollosa  is  given  in  brackets. 


2i8  GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER   NAMES 

Ch'in  Ying  {Kinyei).     Painter  of  the  Ming  period.     He  lived  in  the  i6th  century. 

ChO  Densu,  or  MiNCHO.     Buddhist  priest  and  Japanese  painter.     He  Uved  in  the  15th 

century,  and  died  about  1431. 
Chog.\,  Takuma.     Japanese  painter  of  the  end  of  the  12th  and  the  beginning  of  the 

13th  century. 
Chokken.     Japanese  painter  of  the  i8th  and  19th  centuries.     A  pupil  of  Okio. 
Chokuan,  Shoga.     Japanese  painter  of  the  i6th  century.     He  died  in  the  first  years  of 

the  17th  century. 
Chou  Tun-i  (Teishi).     Philosopher  of  the  Sung  period.     He  lived  from  1027  to  1073. 
Chu  Hsi  (Shuki).     Philosopher  of  the  Sung  period.     He  Uved  from  11 30  to  1200. 
Ch'u  Hui  (Beigensho).     Chinese  painter.     He  Uved  at  the  end  of  the  T'ang  period. 
Chu  Yuan,  or  Chu  Ping  {Kutsiigen).     One  of  the  greatest  poets  of  China.     He  was  the 

minister  of  Prince  Huai,  in  the  province  of  Ch'u.     On  his  disgrace,  he  retired  into 

soUtude  and  composed  the  Li-sao.     He  Uved  from  332  to  295  B.C. 
Ch'uan  Shih  [Rinno).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Ming  period.     He  lived  in  the  15th  century. 
Chujo-hime.     Daughter  of  Fujiwara  Togonari;  she  Uved  from  753  to  781.     She  retired 

to  the  temple  of  Taemadera  in  Yamato  under  the  religious  name  of  Zenohin-ni. 

She  embroidered  a  hanging  representing  the  Paradise  of  Amida.     Legend  represents 

her  as  an  incarnation  of  Kwannon. 
Confucius  {Koshi.  Kung  Tzii).     The  acknowledged  chief  of  Chinese  classic  philosophy. 

He  Uved  from  551  to  479  b.c. 

Daigo.     Japanese  Emperor,  who  reigned  from  898  to  930. 

Do-an,  Yamada.     Japanese  painter  of  the  i6th  century.     Do-an  is  his  priestly  name. 

His  secular  name  is  Yorisada. 
DoKvo.     A  Buddhist  monk,  famous  for  his  intrigues  and  for  the  part  he  played  in  the 

Japanese  history  of  the  i8th  century.     He  died  in  772. 
Doncho.     a  Corean  bonze,  who  is  supposed  to  have  come  to  Japan  in  610.     The  frescoes 

of  Horiuji  are  ascribed  to  him,  and  he  is  also  credited  with  having  taught  the  Japanese 

to  make  paper  and  Indian  ink. 

EiKWAN.     Bonze  of  the  Jodo  sect.     He  lived  in  the  loth  century. 
En-i.     See  Saigyo. 

En  no  Shohaku.     Born  in  634 ;  he  was  one  of  the  first  Buddhist  hermits  in  Japan.     At 
the  age  of  32  he  retired  to  Mount  Katnuagi,  and  lived  in  solitude  for  thirty  years. 

Fan  An-jen.     Chinese  painter  of  the  South  Sung  period.     He  lived  in  the  13th  century. 
Fan  K'uan  {Hankwan).     Chinese  painter  of  the  loth  and  nth  centuries. 

Ganku,  Kishi.     Japanese  painter  of  the  classical  school.     He  Uved  from  1749  to  1838. 
Ganryo,  Kishi.     Nephew  and  pupil  of  Ganku.     He  lived  from  1798  to  1852. 
Gantei,  Kishi.     Son  and  pupil  of  Ganku.     He  died  in  1865. 
Geiami,  or  Shingei.     Japanese  painter,  son  of  Noami.     He  lived  in  the  second  half  of 

the  15th  century. 
Gemmei.     Japanese  Emperor.     He  reigned  from  708  to  722. 
Genha,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  family.     He  Uved  in  the  i6th  century. 
Genki,  Komai.     Japanese  painter.     Pupil  of  Okio.     He  died  in  1797. 
Genshiro.     See  Kano  Yeitoku. 
Gensho.     Japanese  Empress.     Born  in  681,  she  came  to  the  throne  in  715,  abdicated  in 

724,  and  died  in  748. 
GioGi  [Jin  no  Giogi).     A  celebrated  bonze,  by  birth  a  Corean.     He  spent  the  greater  part 

of  his  life  proselytising  in  Japan.     He  lived  from  670  to  749. 


GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER    NAMES  219 

GiOKUHO.     Japanese   painter   of   the    i8th   and    19th   centuries.     A   pupil   of   Goshun 

Matsumura. 
GiTO,  Shibata.     Pupil  of  Goshun  Matsumura.     He  died  in  1819. 
Goshun,  Matsumura.     Japanese  painter,  a  pupil  of  Okio.     He  was  bom  in  1752,  and 

died  in  1811. 

Han  Ch'i  (Oyoshi).     Man  of  letters  and  statesman  of  the  Sung  period.     He  lived  from 

1008  to  1075. 
Han  Kan  [Kankan).     Chinese  painter  of  the  8th  century. 
Han  Wen-kung.     Canonisation  title  of  Han  Yii,  a  writer  of  the  T'ang  period.     He  lived 

from  728  to  824. 
Harunobu,  Suzuki.     Japanese  painter,  a  pupil  of  Shighenaga.     He  lived  from   171 8 

to  1770. 
Henjo,  YosHiMiNi  Munesada.      Japanese  poet.     Henjo  is  his  priestly  name.     He  lived 

from  816  to  890. 
Hidari  Jingor5.     Japanese  sculptor.     He  lived  from  1594  to  1634. 
HiROSHiGHE.     Japanese  painter.     He  lived  from  1797  to  1858. 
HiROTAKA,  KosE.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kose  school.     He  lived  at  the  end  of  the  9th 

and  the  beginning  of  the  loth  century. 
HiROTAKA,  SuMiYosHi.     Japanese  painter  of  the  19th  century.     He  died  in  1885. 
HiTOMARO,   Kakimonoto.     Celebrated  poet  of  Japan.     He  hved  in  the  8th  and  9th 

centuries,  and  died  probably  in  729. 
HiUAN-TSANG.     Chinese  Buddhist  monk,   famous  for  his  pilgrimage  to   India  and  his 

translations  of  the  sacred  writings.     He  lived  from  602  to  664. 
HoGHAi,  Kano.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kano  school.     He  Uved  until  the  last  years 

of  the  19th  century. 
HoiTsu  Sakai.     Japanese  painter  of  the  school  of  Korin.     He  hved  from  1761  to  1828. 
Hojo   ToKiYORi.     Fifth   Shikken   of   Kamakura.      He   hved   from    1226   to  1263,  and 

succeeded  his  brother  Tsunetokien  in  1246. 
HoKKEi.     Japanese  painter  of  the  19th  century,  a  pupil  of  Hokusai. 
HoKUSAi.     Japanese  painter,  one  of  the  great  Ukiyoye  masters.      He  Uved  from  1760 

to  1829. 
HoNEN  Shonin.     Name  given  to  the  bonze  Genkii,  the  founder  of  the  temple  of  Cliionin. 

He  Uved  from  1133  to  1212. 
HoYEN,  NisHiYAMA.     Japanese  painter  of  the  19th  century.     He  died  in  1867. 
HsiA  KuEi  (Kakei).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.      He  lived  at  the  end  of  the 

nth  and  the  beginning  of  the  12th  century. 
HsiA  Ming- YUAN  (Kameiyen).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  Uved  in  the 

13th  century. 
HsiEH  Ling  yun  [Shareiwun).     Chinese  poet  of  the  4th  and  5th  centuries. 
Hsij  Hi  [Joki).     Chinese  painter    of    the    "Five  Dynasties."      He    Uved  in   the   loth 

century. 
Huang  Ch'uan  (i^osm).     Chinese  painter  of  the   "  Five  Dynasties."     He  Uved  in  the 

loth  century. 
HiJAN  Tsung  {Genso).     Emperor  of  the  T'ang  dynasty.     He  reigned  from  713  to  756. 
Huang-ti,   or  the  Yellow   Emperor.     A  semi-legendary  personage.     He  Uved  circa 

2697  B.C. 
Hui  Tsung  (Kiso  or  Kiso  Kotei).     Chinese  Emperor  of  the  Sung  dynasty.     He  reigned 

from  iioi  to  II 26. 
Hui  YtJAN.     Buddhist  priest,  founder  of  the  School  of  the  Lotus.     He  Uved  from  333  to 

416. 


220  GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER   NAMES 

I.VDARA.     This  painter  worked  in  China  in  the  Sung  period.     He  probably  was  not 

Chinese.     He  is  remembered  only  in  Japan. 
IPPO    H-^N.^BUSA.     Japanese  painter  in  the  i8th  century.     He  died  m  1772. 
IPPo'  Mori.     Japanese  painter  of  the  19th  centur5^     He  was  the  son  of  Mon  Tessan. 
Isen',  Kano.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kano  school.      He  Uved  in  the  i8th  and  19th 

centuries.  -r^    ,■      ■,  r  ^ 

Ishikawa  Toyonobu.      Japanese  painter,  pupil  of  Shigenaga.      He  hved  from  1711  to 

I-TSiNG.     Chinese  Buddhist  priest,  celebrated  for  his  pilgrimages  in  India.     He  lived 

from  634  to  713. 
lYEYASU,  ToKUGAWA.     The  first  Tokugawa  Shogun.     He  Hved  from  1542  to  1616,  and 

held  the  Shogunate  from  1603  to  1605. 

JASOKU,  SoGA.     Japanese  painter  of  the  15th  century,  the  son  of  Soga  Shiubun.     He  died 

about  1483. 
JiTO.     Japanese  Empress,  widow  of  the  Emperor  Temmu.     She  reigned  from  687  to  703. 
JocHO.     Japanese  sculptor  of  the  nth  century. 
JOMEi.     Japanese  Emperor.     He  reigned  from  629  to  641. 
JosETSU.    Painter  of  the  14th  and  15th  centuries.    He  was  Chinese  by  origin,  but  settled 

in  Japan,  and  is  now  known  only  by  his  Japanese  name. 

K'ao  Ko-ming  {Jinkomei).    Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  Uved  in  the  nth 

century. 
Kaihoku  Yusho.     Japanese  painter.     His  personal  name  was  Joyeki.      He  hved  from 

1533  to  1615. 
Kakuyu.     Japanese  painter,  better  known  under  his  monkish  name  Toba,  accompanied 

by  his  episcopal  title  :   Sojo.     He  Hved  from  1053  to  1 140. 
Kamatari,  Fujiwara.     The  founder  of  the  Fujiwara  family.     Born  in  614.     He  took 

an  active  part  in  pubUc  affairs  from  646  to  his  death  in  669. 
Kan  Densu.     Japanese  painter  of  the  15th  century.     A  pupil  of  Cho  Densu. 
Kananobu,  Kose.     Japanese  painter,  of  the  Kose  school,  in  the  12th  century. 
Kanaoka,  Kose.     Japanese  painter,  founder  of  the  Kose  school.     He  lived  in  the  9th 

and  loth  centuries. 
Kanataka,  Kose.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kose  school.     He  lived  in  the  nth,  and 

perhaps  in  the  12th  century. 
Kang  Hi.     Emperor  of  the  Ts'ing  dynasty.     He  reigned  from  1662  to  1723. 
Kanishka.     An  Indian  King,  the  conqueror  of  the  greater  part  of  India  and  the  patron 

of  Buddhism.     He  reigned  from  15  B.C.  to  45  a.d. 
Kanshin.     a  Chinese  bonze  who  came  to  Japan  in  754.     In  758  he  received  the  title  of 

Taishon-osho,  by  which  he  is  sometimes  designated.     He  Hved  from  687  to  763. 
Kato  Kiyomasa.     a  Japanese  general,  famous  for  his  conquests  in  Corea.      He  lived 

from  1562  to  1611. 
Keibun,  Matsumura.     a  Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  and  younger  brother  of  Goshun 

Matsumura.     He  died  in  1843. 
Keion,  Sumiyoshi.     Japanese  painter  of  the  12th  and  the  13th  centuries. 
Keishoki,  Tsubura.     Japanese  painter  of  the  15th  century. 
Kenzan,  Ogata.     Japanese  painter  and  potter.     He  was  the  brother  of  Korin,  and  Uved 

from  1663  to  1743. 
Ki'en  Lung.     Chinese  Emperor  of  the  T'sing  dynasty.     He  reigned  from  1736  to  1796. 
KiMMEi.     Japanese  Emperor  who  reigned  from  540  to  571. 


GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER   NAMES  221 

KiMURA  Nagamitsu.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school.     He  was  a  monk  under  the  name  of 

Zenryo.     He  lived  in  the  i6th  century. 
KiNMOCHi,    KosE.     Japanese  painter  of  the   Kose  school.     He  was  the  son  of   Kose 

Kintada  and  the  great  grandson  of  Kose  Kanaoka,  and  lived  in  the  nth  century. 
KiREi.     Japanese  painter,  a  pupil  of  Okio.     He  lived  in  the  i8th  century. 
KisHi  Chikundo.     Japanese  painter  of  the  school  of  Ganku.     He  was  bom  in  1826. 
KiUHAKU,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school,  the  father  of  Kano  Yeitoku.      He  lived 

in  the  17th  century. 
KiYOMASu,  ToRii.     Japanese  painter,  who  ranks  as  the  second  great  master  of  the  Torii 

school.     He  was  born  in  1679  and  died  about  1763. 
KiYOMiTsu,  Torii.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Torii  school.     He  lived  from  1735  to  1785. 
KiYOMORi,  Taira.     The  greatest  of  the  Taira.     He  lived  from  1118  to  1181. 
KiYONAGA.     Japanese  painter;  his  real  name  was  Sekiguchi  Ichibei.     He  was  born  in 

1752  and  died  in  1814. 
KiYONOBU,  Torii.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Torii  school.     He  hved  from  1664  to  1729. 
KoBO  Daishi.     His  real  name  was  Kukai.     Kobo  Daishi  is  a  posthumous  name.     He 

was  a  Japanese  monk,  who  studied  in  China,  and  on  his  return  to  Japan  founded  the 

Shingon  sect.     He  lived  from  774  to  835. 
KoBUN.     A  Japanese  sculptor  of  the  school  of  Nara.     He  hved   in   the   13th  and    14th 

centuries. 
Koi,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school.     His  real  name  was  Matsuga  Koi.     He  hved 

from  1566  to  1636. 
KoKEN.     Japanese  Empress,  who  reigned  from  749  to  758. 
KONIN.     Japanese  Emperor,  who  reigned  from  770  to  781. 

KoNisHi,  YuKiNAGA.  A  Japanese  general  who  commanded  in  Corea.  He  died  in  1600. 
Korehisa,  Kose.  Japanese  painter  of  the  Kose  school.  He  lived  in  the  14th  century. 
KoRiusAi.     His  real  name  was  Isoda  Shobei.      A  Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  of  Harunobu. 

He  lived  at  the  end  of  the  i8th  century. 
Kuan  Hsiu  (Zengetsu).     Chinese  painter  of  the  period  of  the  "Five  Dynasties."    He  lived 

in  the  loth  century. 
Kuan  YtJ.     A  Chinese  general,  who  died  in  219.     He  was  deified  as  god  of  war  under  the 

name  of  Kuan  Ti. 
Kukai.     See  Kobo  Daishi. 
Ku  K'ai-chih  {Kogaishi).     A  Chinese  painter,  under  the  "Six  Dynasties";    he  lived 

in  the  4th  and  5th  centuries. 
Kunisada.     The  second  Toyokuni.     A  Japanese  painter  of  the  19th  century.     He  died 

in  1864. 
KuNiYOSHi.     A  Japanese  painter  of  the  19th  century.     He  died  in  1861. 
Kuo  Hsi  {Kakki).     Chinese  painter  of  the  nth  century. 
Kuo  SzE  (Jakkio).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period,  the  son  of  Kuo  Hsi.     He  hved 

in  the  nth  and  perhaps  in  the  12th  century. 
KusuNOKi  MasashigiS.     a  Japanese  hero,  the  traditional  type  of  fidelity  and  devotion 

to  the  Imperial  dynasty.     He  hved  from  1294  to  1336. 
KwAiGETSUDO.     A  Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  of  Miyagawa  Shosun.     He  lived  at  the 

beginning  of  the  18th  century. 
KwAMMU.     A  Japanese  Emperor.     He  reigned  from  782  to  805. 
KwASAN,  YoKOYAMA.     A  Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  of  Ganku  and  afterwards  of  Goshun. 

He  lived  from  1784  to  1837. 
Lao-tzu  {Laotse).     A  Chinese  philosopher,  the  author  of  the  Tao-te-ching.     Legend  has 

transformed  him  into  a  fabulous  being.     He  now  holds  the  first  place  in  the  Taoist 

Trinity.     He  was  born  604  B.C. 


222  GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER    NAMES 

Liang  Ch'ieh  {Riokai).     A  Chinese  painter  of  the  South  Sung  period.     He  Hved  in  the 

13th  century. 
Li  Ch'eng  {Risei}.     A  Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  Hved  in  the  loth  century. 
Li  Chien.     a  Chinese  painter  of  the  T'ang  period.     He  hved  in  the  gth  century. 
Li  Lung-mien   {Ririomin).      A  Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.      He  died  at  the 

beginning  of  the  12th  century. 
Li  Po  {Rihaku).     One  of  the  greatest  poets  of  Chinese  Uterature.     He  Hved  from  705 

to  762. 
Lin  Pu.     Chinese  calUgrapher  and  man  of  letters  in  the  3rd  century,  a.d. 
Li  Ssu-hiun  [Rishikin).     A  Chinese  painter  of  the  T'ang  period.     He  hved  in  the  8th 

century. 
Li  T'ang  {Rito).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  hved  in  the  12th  century. 
Li  Ti  {Riieki).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  hved  in  the  12th  century. 
Li  Tsung.     Emperor  of  the  South  Sung  period.     He  reigned  from  1125  to  1265. 
Liu  Sung-nien.     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period. 

Ma  Che- YUNG.     Chinese  painter,  the  father  of  Ma  Yuan  and  Ma  Kuei.     He  hved  in  the 

12th  century. 
Ma  Hing-tsu  (Bakoso).     Chinese  painter,  the  grandfather  of  Ma  Yiian. 
Ma-kong-hien  {Bakoku).     Chinese  painter,  the  uncle  of  Ma  Yiian  and  the  elder  brother 

of  Ma  Che-yung. 
Ma  Kuei  {Baki).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period,  the  brother  of  Ma  Yiian.     He 

lived  in  the  12th  and  13th  centuries. 
Ma  Lin  {Barin).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period,  the  son  of  Ma  Yiian.     He  hved 

in  the  13th  century. 
Ma  YtJAN  {Bayen).      Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.      He   hved   in   the    12th   and 

13th  centuries. 
Mao  Chang  (MosAo).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.      He  hved  in  the   12th  and 

13th  centuries. 
Masakado,  Taira.     One  of  the  Taira.     He  died  in  940. 
Masanobu,  Kano.     Japanese  painter,  the  founder  of  the  Kano  school.     He  lived  in  the 

15th  century. 
Masanobu,  Okumura,  or  Genfachi.     Japanese  painter  who  hved  from  1690  to  1768. 
Matahei,  Iwasa.     Japanese  painter,  the  founder  of  the  school  which  bears  his  name. 

He  hved  in  the  i6th  and  17th  centuries. 
Michizane,  Sugawara.     Son  of  Koreyoshi  and  minister  of  the  Emperors  Uda  and  Daigo. 

He  hved  from  845  to  903. 
Mincho.     See  Cho  Densu. 
Minenobu,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school,  the  second  son  of  Kano  Tsunenobu. 

He  died  in  1790. 
Ming  Ti  [Meitei).     Chinese  Emperor  of  the  Han  dynasty.     He  reigned  from  58  to  76. 

Buddhism  seems  to  have  made  its  first  appearance  in  China  in  his  reign. 
Mitsuhisa,    Tosa.     Japanese    painter,  the    daughter  of  Tosa   Mitsunobu    and  wife  of 

Kano  Motonobu. 
MiTSUMOCHi,  Tosa.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school.     He  worked  in  the  first  half 

of  the  1 6th  century. 
MiTSUNAGA.  Kasuga.     Japanese  painter  of  the  12th  century. 
MiTSUNAKA,  MiNAMOTO.     The  SOU  of  Tsunemoto.     He  lived  from  912  to  997. 
MiTSUNARi,  Tosa.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school.     He  died  in  1710. 
MiTsuNOBu,  Tosa.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school.     He  was  born  about  1434  and 

died  about  1525. 


GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER    NAMES  223 

MiTSUNORi,  TosA.     Son  of  Mitsuyoshi.     He  lived  in  the  17th  century. 

MiTsuoKi,  TosA.     Son  of  Mitsunori.     He  died  in  1691. 

MiTSusHiGHE,  TosA.     Son  of  Yukimitsu.     He  lived  in  the  15th  century. 

MiYAGAWA  Choshun.     Japanese  painter.     He  lived  from  1682  to  1752. 

Mi  Yuan-tchang,  or  Mi  Fei  {Beigensho).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  lived 

at  the  beginning  of  the  nth  century. 
Morikage,  Kusumi.     Japanese  painter  of  the  17th  century. 
MoRiKUNi,  Tachibana.     Japanese  painter  and  calligrapher.     He  died  in  1748. 
Mori  Kwansai.     Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  and  son-in-law  of  Mori  Tessan.     He  died 

in  1894. 
MoRiYA,  MoNONOBE.     Japanese  statesman.     He  opposed  the  Soga,  and  showed  himself 

the  implacable  foe  of  Buddhism.     He  died  in  587. 
MoRONOBU,  HisHiKAWA.     Japanese  painter  of  the  17th  century.     He  hved  from  1625  to 

1662. 
MoTOMiTSU,  Kasuga.     Japanese  painter,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Tosa  school  properly 

so  called.     He  lived  in  the  nth  century. 
MoTONOBU,  Kano.     Japanese  painter,  the  son  of  Kano  Masanobu.     He  lived  from  1476 

to  1559. 
MoTOTSUNE,  FujiwARA.     Japanese  statesman,  writer  and  regent  of  the  Empire.     He 

lived  from  836  to  891. 
Mu-AN  [Mokuan).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  was  a  Buddhist  monk,  and 

lived  in  the  13th  century. 
Mu  Ch'i  [Mokkei).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  lived  in  the  loth  century. 
Mu  Wang  (Wa-Tei).     A  Chinese  Emperor,  the  sixth  sovereign  of  the  Chou  dynasty. 

He  came  to  the  throne  in  looi  b.c.  and  died  in  946  B.C. 
MuRASAKi  Shikibu.    Japanese  writer,  authoress  of  the  Genji  Monogatari.    She  died  in  992. 

Nagarjima.     The  fourteenth  patriarch  of  Indian  Buddhism.     He  was  the  first  to  preach 

the  doctrines  of  Amitabha.     He  was  one  of  the  greatest  philosophers  of  Northern 

Buddhism.     He  lived  in  the  3rd  century  B.C. 
Nangaku,  Watanabe.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Shijo  school.     He  died  in  181 3. 
Nara  Kantei.     Japanese  painter  and  Buddhist  monk.     He  Uved  in  the  first  half  of  the 

15th  century. 
Narihira,  Ariwara.     Poet  and  painter.     He  Uved  from  825  to  880.     He  became  the 

hero  of  the  Tse  Monogatari. 
Nen  Kao.     Japanese  painter  of  the  15th  century. 
Nichiren.     Buddhist  monk,  the  founder  of  the  Hokke-shu  sect.     He  Uved  from  1222  to 

1282. 
NiN  Tsung  (Neiso).     Emperor  of  the  Sung  dynasty.     He  reigned  from  ii95jto  1225. 
NiTTA  Yoshisada.     Japanese  hero  and  general.      He  put  an  end  to  the  Hojo  power  by 

taking  Kamakura.     He  Uved  from  1301  to  1338. 
NoAMi.     Japanese  painter  of  the  15th  century.     His  family  name  was  Nakao. 
N0BUZAN6,   Fujiwara.     Japanese  painter  of  the   13th  century.     He  was  the  son  of 

Kasuga  Takachika.     His  priestly  name  was  Jakusai.     He  died  in  1265. 

Okio,  Maruyama.     Japanese  painter,  founder  of  the  school  that  bears  his  name.     He 

lived  from  1733  to  1795- 
Ono  no  Komachi.    The  daughter  of  Yoshisada,  celebrated  for  her  beauty  and  misfortunes. 

She  was  one  of  the  great  poets  of  Japan.     She  lived  from  896  to  966. 
Ono  no  Takamura.     Japanese  writer  and  statesman.     He  lived  from  802  to  852. 
Otomo  Yakamochi.     Japanese  statesman.     He  died  in  785. 
Ozui.     Japanese  painter,  the  son  and  pupil  of  Okio.     He  died  in  1829. 

VOL.  II.  P 


224  GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER   NAMES 

Renzan,  Aoki.     Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  and  son-in-law  of  Ganku.     He  died  in  1859. 
RiNKEN.'  Shiba.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school.     He  lived  in  the  i6th  century. 
RosETSU,  Nasagawa.     Japanese  painter.     He  died  in  1799. 
Ryoga,  Takuma.     Japanese  painter,  the  son  of  Takuma  Shoga.     He  lived  in  the  13th 

century. 
Ryoson.  Takuma.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Takuma  school.     He  worked  about  1326. 

Sadanobu,  Kano.     There  were  two  Japanese  painters  of  this  name,  both  of  the  Kano 

school'.      One,  the  son  of  Kano  Mitsunobu,  died  young;    the  other  was   Matsuya 

Ko-i,  born  in  1566.     The  latter  did  not  really  belong  to  the  Kano  family  either  by 

birth  or  adoption. 

Saicho.     Japanese  bonze,  better  known  by  his  posthumous  name  of  Dengyo  Daishi.     He 

lived  from  767  to  822. 
Saigo  Takamori.     One  of  the  most  important  leaders  of  the  Restoration  movement. 
He  directed  the  revolt  of  1877.     Born  in  1827.     He  died  on  the  battlefield  of  Shiro- 
yama  in  1877. 
Saigyo.     Descendant  of  Fujiwara  Hidesato.     Poet  and  perhaps  painter.     He  became 

a  bonze  under  the  name  of  En-i.     He  hved  from  11 18  to  1190. 
Sanraku,  Kano.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kano  school.     His  real  name  was  Kimura 

Mitsuyori.     He  lived  from  1559  to  1635. 
Sansetsu,  Kano.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kano  school,  a  pupil  of  Sanraku.     His  family 

name  was  Chiga.     He  Uved  from  1589  to  1651. 
Seisen,  Kano,  or  Osanobu.    Japanese  painter  of  the  Kano  school,  the  son  of  Kano  Isen, 

or  Naonobu.     He  died  in  1846. 
Sesshu.     Japanese  painter,  the  founder  of  the  school  that  bears  his  name.     He  lived 

from  1420  to  1506. 
Shigemasa,  Kitao.     Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  of  Shigenaga.     He  Uved  from  1739  to 

1819.     He  often  used  the  name  Kosuisai. 
Shigenaga,  Nishimura.     Japanese  painter.     He  lived  from  1697  ^o  1756. 
Shingetsu.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Sesshu  school.     He  lived  in  the  15th  century. 
Shinkei.     a  Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  of  Hoyen.     He  lived  in  the  19th  century. 
Shinran.     a  famous  bonze,  the  founder  of  the  Shin-shu  sect.     He  hved  from  1 174  to  1263. 
Shohaku,  Soga.     a  Japanese  painter.    His  real  name  was  Soga  Ki-ichi.     He  hved  from 

1730  to  1783. 
Shomu.     Japanese  Emperor.     He  abdicated  in  723  and  died  in  756. 
Shosen,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school,  the  son  of  Kano  Seisen.     He  died  in  1880. 
Shosiseki,  Kusomoto.     Japanese  painter,  a  pupil  of  Chin  Nan-ping.     He  died  in  1786. 
Shotoku  Taishi.    The  second  son  of  the  Emperor  Jomei.     One  of  the  most  fervid  devotees 

of  Buddhism  in  Japan.     He  lived  from  572  to  621. 
Shoyei,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school.     He  hved  from  1521  to  1592. 
Shubun,  Soga.     Japanese  painter  of  the  15th  century. 
Shukei.     a  Japanese  painter,  better  known  by  the  name  of  Sesson.     He  lived  in  the 

1 6th  century,  and  was  a  pupil  of  Sesshu. 
Shun.     One  of  the  great  legislators  of  primitive  China.     Chosen  by  the  Emperor  Yao 

to  succeed  him  on  the  throne.     He  hved  from  2317  to  2208  B.C. 
Shunki,  Katsugawa.     Japanese  painter  of  the  19th  century. 
Shunman,  Kubo.     Japanese  painter  of  the  end  of  the  i8th  century. 
Shunsho.     Japanese  painter.     He  hved  from  1726  to  1792. 
Shunsui.     Japanese  painter  of  the  i8th  century. 

SoHA,  Kano.     Japanese  painter,  the  brother  of  Yeitoku.     He  lived  in  the  17th  century. 
SoRiN,  Tawaraya.     Japanese  painter  of  the  17th  century. 


GLOSSARY   OF    PROPER   NAMES  225 

SosEN,  Mori.     Japanese  painter.     He  lived  from  1747  to  1822. 

SosHi,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school.     He  lived  in  the  i6th  century. 

SoTAN,  Oguri.     Japanese  painter,  a  pupil  of  Shubun.     He  lived  in  the  15th  century. 

SoTATSU.     Japanese  painter  of  the  17th  century. 

Ssu-MA  KuANG  {Shiba  Onko).     Chinese  statesman  and  writer.     He  lived  under  the  Sung 

dynasty  from  1019  to  1086  a.d. 
Su  Tung  p'o  {So-Toba).     Chinese  statesman,  writer,  poet  and  painter.     He  lived  under 

the  Sung  dynasty  from  1036  to  iioi. 
Su  Wu.     Chinese  statesman.     He  suffered  a  long  captivity  among  the  Huns.     He  lived 

in  the  ist  and  2nd  centuries  b.c. 
SuGAWARA  NO  Michizan:^.     Japanese  statesman,  who  opposed  the  Fujiwara  in  the  interests 

of  the  Emperor.     He  lived  from  845  to  903. 
SuiKO.     Japanese  Empress.     She  reigned  from  593  to  628. 
SusHUN.     Japanese  Emperor  from  588  to  592. 
Sumitomo,  Fujiwara.     An  accomplice  in  the  revolt  of  Taira  Masakado.     He  was  killed 

in  942. 
SuMiYOSHi  GuKEi.     Japanese  painter.     He  was  the  son  of  S.  Jokei.     He  died  in  1705. 
SuMiYOSHi  HiROSADA.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school.     He  lived  in  the  19th 

century. 
SuMiYOSHi  Jokei,  or  Hiromichi.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school.     He  lived  in  the 

17th  century. 
Sung  Kiun-tche.     Chinese  painter  of  the  Ming  period. 
Sung  Ti  [Rito).     Chinese  painter  of  the  nth  century. 
SuYEMASA,  or  Kano  Kunimatsu.     Third  son  of  Kano  Masanobu.     He  lived  in  the  i6th 

century. 

Tai  Chin  {Tai  Wen-chin).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Ming  period.     He  Uved  in  the  i6th 

century. 
Taigado  Ik]^.     Japanese  painter.     He  lived  from  1723  to  1776. 

T'ai  T  Sung  {Taiso).  Second  Emperor  of  the  T'ang  dynasty.  He  lived  from  627  to  650. 
Tai  Sung  {Taisu).  Chinese  painter  of  the  T'ang  period.  He  Hved  in  the  9th  century. 
Takachika.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school,  the  son  of  Takagoshi.     He  liA'cd  in 

the  12th  century. 
Takamochi  Taira.     The  son  of  Takami-6.     He  received  the  family  name  of  Taira  in  889. 
Takanoeu,  Fujiwara.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school,  the  son  of  Fujiwara  Tame- 

taka.     He  lived  from  11 46  to  1205. 
Takanobu,   Kano.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kano  school,  the  son  of  Kano  Yeitoku. 

He  lived  from  1570  to  1618. 
Takayoshi,  Fujiwara.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  school.     He  lived  in  the  12th 

century. 
Takenouchi,  Seiho.     Contemporary  Japanese  painter,  a  pupil  of  Bairei. 
Tamenari,  Takuma.     Japanese  painter  of  the  nth  century.     He  worked  about  1037. 
Tamuramaro,   Sakamoto.      Japanese    general,   famous  for  his  campaigns  against  the 

Ainus.     He  lived  from  758  to  811. 
T'ang  Yin  (Ta'in).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Ming  period.     He  Uved  in  the  15th  and  the 

1 6th  centuries. 
Tankei.     Japanese  sculptor  of  the  13th  century.     He  was  the  son  of  Unkei. 
Tanshin,  Kano,  or  Morimasa.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school.     He  hved  from  1653  to  1718. 
Tanshin  Morimichi,  or  Kano  Tanshin.     Japanese  painter  of  the  19th  century.     He  is 

often  confounded  with  a  17th  century  painter,  Kano  Tanshin. 
Tanyei.    a  Japanese  painter,  the  son  of  Tsuruzawa  Tanzan.     He  lived  in  the  i8th  century. 

P  2 


226  GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER    NAMES 

Tax  YU,  Kano.     One  of  the  great  masters  of  the  Kano  school.     He  lived  from  1602  to  1674, 
Tanzan,  Tsuruzawa.     Japanese  painter  of  the  i8th  century. 

Tao  YiJAN-MiNG,  or  T'ao  Ch'ien  [Toemniei).     Chinese  poet.     He  Uved  from  365  to  427. 
Temmu.     Japanese  Emperor.     He  reigned  from  673  to  686.     He  succeeded  the  Emperor 

Kobun,  who  reigned  only  a  year. 
Tenchi.     Japanese  Emperor.     He  reigned  from  662  to  671. 
Tetzuzan,  or  Tessan  Mori.     Japanese  painter,  the  nephew  and  adopted  son  of  Mori 

Sosen.     He  died  in  1 84 1. 
ToBA.     Japanese  Emperor.     He  came  to  the  throne  in  1108,  abdicated  in  1123  and  died 

in  1 156. 
Tokimune,  Hojo.     Sixth  Shikken  of  Kamakura.     He  lived  from  1251  to  1284. 
ToKiWA  Gozen.     The  concubine  of  Minamoto  Yoshitomo,  then  of  Kiyomori,  and  finally 

wife  of  Fujiwara  Nagari.     Her  flight  with  her  three  children  in  1 160,  after  the  death 

of  Yoshitomo,  is  a  classic  subject  in  Japanese  painting. 
Toko  Unkoku.     Japanese  painter,  the  son  of  Unkoku  Togan.     He  hved  in  the  first 

half  of  the  17th  century. 
Tori.     A  Japanese  name  under  which  we  know  a  Buddhist  sculptor  of  Southern  Chinese 

origin,  who  came  to  Japan  towards  the  beginning  of  the  6th  century. 
Tori  Busshi,  or  Doshi,  the  name  of  Kuratsukuribe  no  Tori.     A  Japanese  painter  and 

sculptor  in  the  reign  of  Suiko  (593-628). 
To-UN,  Kano,  or  Masunobu.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school,  the  pupil  of  Kano  Tanyu. 

He  Uved  in  the  17th  century. 
ToYOHARU,  Utagawa.     A  Japanese  painter,  the  brother  and  pupil  of  Toyonobu.     He 

worked  at  the  end  of  the  i8th  century. 
ToYOHiKO,  Okamoto.     Japanese  painter.     He  died  in  1845. 
ToYOHiRO.     Japanese  painter,  the  brother  of  Toyokuni.     He  worked  at  the  beginning 

of  the  19th  century. 
Toyokuni.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Utagawa  school,  the  pupil  of  Toyoharu.     He  died 

in  1825. 
Toyonobu,  Utagawa.     Japanese  painter  of  the  second  half  of  the  i8th  century. 
Ts'ao  Pu-hsing  (So FmAj^o).     AChinese  painter  at  the  periodof  the  "Six Dynasties."     He 

lived  in  the  3rd  century. 
TsuRAYUKi.     Poet  and  calUgrapher,  one  of  the  masters  of  Japanese  poetry.     He  lived 

from  883  to  946. 
Tu  Fu  {Toshimi).     One  of  the  greatest  poets  of  China.     He  lived  from  712  to  770. 
Tung  Ch'i-chang  [Tokisho).     A  Chinese  writer  of  the  Ts'ing  period. 
Tung  Yuan   [Kwando).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Sung  period.     He  lived  in  the  nth 

century. 

Unkei.     Japanese  sculptor  of  the  12th  and  13th  centuries. 
Utamaro.     Japanese  painter  of  the  i8th  century.     He  died  in  1788. 
Utanosuki,  Kano,  or   Yukinobu.     Japanese   painter,   the   younger   brother   of   Kano 
Motonobu.     He  lived  from  1513  to  1575. 

Vasubandhu.     The  twenty-first  or  twenty-second  patriarch  of  Indian  Buddhism.     He 

was  the  younger  brother  of  Asanigha.     He  lived  in  the  2nd  century  a.d. 
Vimalakirti.     A  contemporary  of  Sakya  Muni.     Legend  asserts  that  he  visited  China. 

Wang  An-shih  {Oanseki).     Chinese  statesman,  the  leader  of  the  reform  party  under  the 
Sungs.     He  lived  from  ion  to  1086. 


GLOSSARY    OF    PROPER    NAMES  227 

Wang  Hsi-CHiH  (Ogishi).     Chinese  pcdnter  at  the  period  of  the  "Six  Dynasties."     He 

hved  from  321  to  379. 
Wang  Wei  [Omakitsu,  Oi).     Painter  and  poet  of  the  T'ang  period.     He  was  born  in  699. 
Watanabe  Shiko.     Japanese  painter.     He  Hved  from  1683  to  1755. 
Wei  Ye  {Sho-o).     Man  of  letters  and  caUigrapher  of  the  Sung  period.     He  hved  in  the 

nth  century. 
Wen  Wang.     Hereditary  prince  of  the  state  of  Ch'i  in  the  modern  Shensi ;  the  father  of 

Wu  Wang,  the  founder  of  the  Chou  dynasty.     He  Hved  from  1231  to  1135  B.C. 
Wu  Tao-tzu  [Godoshi).     Chinese  painter  of  the  T'ang  period.     He  Hved  in  the  8th  century. 
Wu  Ti  [Buiei).     Fourth  Emperor  of  the  first  Han  dynasty.     He  died  in  87  b.c,  having 

reigned  from  140  b.c. 
Wu  Wang.     The  son  of  Wen  Wang,  first  Emperor  of  the  Chou  dynsaty.     He  hved  from 

1 169  to  1 1 16  B.C. 


Yang  Kuei-fei.     The  all-powerful  favourite  of  the  T'ang  Emperor,  Hiian  Tsung.     She 

was  handed  over  by  the  Emperor  to  the  insurrectionary  troops  and  killed  in  756. 
Yasunobu,  Kano,  or  Yeishin.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Kano  school.     He  lived  from 

1613  to  1685. 
Yeiga,  Takuma.     Japanese  painter  of  the  school  of  Takuma.     He  lived  in  the  14th 

century. 
Yeisen.     Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  of  Yeisan.     He  lived  from  1792  to  1848. 
Yeishi.     Japanese  painter  of  the  end  of  the  i8th  and  of  the  19th  century. 
Yeishin,  Kano.     See  Kano  Yasunobo. 

Yeishin,  Sozu,  or  Genshin.     Buddhist  priest  and  painter.     He  Hved  from  942  to  1017. 
Yeitoku,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school.     He  lived  from  1543  to  1590- 
Yen  Huei  {Ganki).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Southern  Sung  period.     He  Hved  in  the  13th 

century. 
Yen  Li-pen   {Enriuhon).     Chinese  painter  of  the  T'ang  period.     He  Hved  in  the  7th 

century. 
Yen  l.i-TE  {Enriutoku) .     Chinese  painter  of  the  T'ang  period,  the  brother  of  the  above. 

He  Hved  in  the  7th  century. 
Yen  Tz'u-ping  (Enjihei).     Chinese  painter  of  the  Southern  Sung  period.     He  lived  in 

the  13th  century. 
Yenichibo,  Takuma.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Takuma  school.     He  Hved  in  the  second 

half  of  the  13th  century. 
YocHiMOCHi,  Ashikaga.     The  fourth  Ashikaga  Shogun.     He  Hved  from  1386  to  1428. 
YoGETSU.     Buddhist  priest  and  painter  of  the  school  of  Sesshu.     He  lived  in  the  15th 

century. 
YoRiYosHi,  MiNAMOTO.      The  son  of  Minamoto  Yorinobu.      He  took  part    in   various 

campaigns  against  the  Taira.     He  lived  from  995  to  1082. 
YosEN,  Kano  or  Korinobu.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school.     He  lived  in  the  19th  century. 
YobHiHAKi.     Fifteenth  Ashikaga  ShCgun.     He  held  the  Shogunate  from  1568  to  1573. 

He  died  in  1597. 
YosHiiY^,  Minamoto.     Japanese  hero  of  the  nth  century.     He  lived  from  10^1  to  1108. 
YosHiMiTsu,  Minamoto,  the  brother  of  Yoshiiye ;  took  part  in  the  wars  carried  on  by  the 

latter.     He  lived  from  1056  to  1127. 
Yoshinobu,  Kano.     Painter  of  the  Kano  school,  the  brother  of  Kano  Yeitoku.     He  lived 

in  the  i6th  century. 
Yoshitomo,  Minamoto,  the  son  of  Tameyoshi.     He  took  part  in  the  civil  war  of  Hogen 

(1156).     Bom  in  1123,  killed  in  1160. 


228  GLOSSARY   OF    PROPER    NAMES 

YiJ.     Chinese  Emperor  of  legendary  times.     Annals  record  that  he  came  to  the  throne 

in  2205  B.C. 
YuEH  San.     Painter  of  the  Ming  period. 
YuHi  KoMASHiRO.     Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  of  Chin  Nan-ping.     He  hved  in  the  i8th 

century. 
YuKiHiD^,  TosA.     Painter  of  the  Tosa  school,  the  son  of  Yukihiro.     He  hved  in  the 

15th  century. 
Yukihiro,  Tosa.     Painter  of  the  Tosa  school.     He  lived  in  the  15th  century. 
YuKiMiTSU,  Tosa.     Japanese  painter  of  the  Tosa  School.     He  worked  about  1356. 
YuKiNOBU,  Kano.     See  Utanosukj^. 
YusETSU  Kaihoku.     Japanese  painter  of  the  17th  century,  the  son  of  Yusho  Kaihoku. 

He  died  about  1677. 
Yusho  Kaihoku.     Japanese  painter,  the  pupil  of  Kano  Yeitoku.     He  lived  from  1533  to 

1615. 
YUTEI,  IsHiDA.     Painter  of  the  i8th  century.     He  was  the  master  of  Okio. 


INDEX 


Abe  no  Nakamaro,  see  Naksimaro 
Ahimi,  Kose,  see  Kose 
Akahito,  I.,  99 
Alaska,  art  of,  I.,  8,  10 
Amida  worship,  I.,  163-7,  181-2 
Anderson,  Dr.  William,  I.,  159,  190,  200, 

II.,  128 
Angelico,  Fra,  I.,  164 
Animal-painting,    Japanese,    II.,    169-70, 

174-5 
Architecture,  Buddhist,  I.,  31-2  ;  Chinese, 

II.,  154-5  ;    Japanese,  I.,  180,  II.,  iii 
Ariga  Nagao,  Dr.,  I.,  xviii. 
Arishige,  I.,  203 
Army,  Japanese,  I.,  170-1 
Asa,  Prince,  I.,  49,  56 
Asampho,  I.,  78 

Ashikaga  Period,  I.,  197,  204,  II.,  60-88,  95 
Ashikaga  University,  II.,  93 
Aztec  art,  I.,  9,  10,  14 

Bairei,  II.,  177 

Bakeisei,  II.,  38,  39 

Baki,  II.,  45 

Bakoku,  II.,  38-9 

Bakoso  (Ma  Hsing  Tsu),  II.,  37,  39 

Baktrian  art,  I.,  22 

Bakwashi  (Ma  Kung-hsien),  II.,  37 

Barbizon  School,  II.,  168 

Barin  (Ma-hn),  II.,  45 

Bayen  (Ma  Yuan),  II.,  32,  39,  42 

Beigensho    (Mi    Yuan   Chang),    II.,    8-9, 

26-7,  55.  14.5 
Beisen,  II.,  177 
Besnard.  II.,  127 

Bigelow  Collection,  II.,  93.  i?^,  188 
Bing  Collection,  I.,  42,  H-  i37 
Bodhisattwa,  definition  of,  I.,  106-7,  124 
Book  illustration,  Japanese,  II.,  185-7 
Brocades,  Japanese,  II.,  178 
Bronzes,  Chinese,  I.,  10,  12-14,  23-7,  40-1, 

II.,  155-6  ;   Corean,  I.,  90-1.  H-.  155-6  ; 

Japanese,  I.,  65-72,  95-100.  168,  II.,  169 
Buddhism,   Chinese,   I.,   28-30,   II.,   150; 

Indian,    I.,    78  ;      Japanese,    I.,    55-6. 

181-2  ;  Nara,  I.,  200  ;   Shingon,  I.,  139, 

146-7,    155-7,    200 ;     Suikon,    I.,    200  ; 

Tendai,    I.,    121-3,    143-4.    ^50-1,    163, 

200;    Zen,  I.,  120-1,  203-4,  II.,  2,  4-7, 

12,  33-5.  63-6 


Buddhist  art,   Chinese,   I.,   28-44,   73-89, 

1 16-127,    XL,    4-27;     Corean,    46-51; 

Japanese,    I.,    52-72,    90-115,    127-168, 

II.,  62-76,  125 
Bunjingwa,    II.,    55,    145-8,    153-4,    158, 

163-6,  196-7 
Bunrin,  II.,  176 
Bunyoka,  II.,  26-7 
Bushell,  Dr.,  I.,  63 
Buson,  II.,  166 
Butei  (VVu  Ti),  Emperor,  I.,  39-40,  77 


Chamberlain,  Professor,  II.,  122 

Chao  Ch'ang,  see  Chosho 

Chao  Ch'ien-li,  see  Chosenri 

Chao  Ta-nien,  see  Chotainen 

Chao  Tzu-ang,  see  Chosugo 

Charlemange,  I.,  5 

Chavannes,  Professor,  I.,  25 

Cheh  Tsung,  see  Tesso 

Ch'en  Tuan,  see  Kwazan  Inshi 

Chien-Shun  Ch'ii,  see  Sen-Shunkio 

Chikundo,  II.,  177 

Chin  Shoo,  II.,  51 

China:  archaeology,  I.,  11;  history,  I., 
9,  16-20,  27,  35-37.  84-5.  117.  140-2,  II., 
20-3,  30-2,  52-3,  56-7, 149-52  ;  literature, 
I.,  15-16,  18-19,  34,  37-40,  117-9.  II-.  2. 
147-8,  151 

Chinese  art  :  chronological  chart,  I.,  xxvi., 
5  ;  early  foreign  influences,  I.,  2-14, 
19-27  ;  early  Buddhist,  28-44  ;  Greco- 
Buddhist,  I.,  84-9  ;  Zen  and  Tendai 
Schools,  I.,  120-7,  II.,  4-19,  55-6;  rise 
of  secular  art,  II.,  24-9  ;  modern  art, 
140-58.  See  also  Han,  Hangchow, 
Ming,  Sung,  Tang,  Tsing,  Yuen 

Chinese  language,  I.,  xxiv.,  18 

Chinese  writing,  I.,  37-8,  130 

Chinnampin,  II.,  164 

Chisho  Daishi,  I.,  147 

Chokken,  II.,  174 

Chosenri  (Chao  Ch'ien-H),  II.,  29 

Chosho  (Chao  Ch'ang),  II.,  9 

Choshokio,  I.,  136 

Chosoyo  (Chang  Seng-yu),  II.,  25 

Chosugo  (Chao  Tzu-ang),  IT,  54 

Chotainen  (Chao  Ta-nien),  II.,  29 

Chow  Period,  I.,  5,  14 


230 


INDEX 


Christianity,   in    China,    II.,   90-1,     114, 

H9-50. 
Ch'uan  Shih,  see  Rinno 
Chu  Hsi,  see  Shuki 
Ch'u  Hui,  II.,  9 
Confucianism,  I.,  9,   14-15,   18-19,   114-5, 

141-2,  162,  II.,  2-3,  5,  20,  22,  33-5,  53, 

142-7,  163-5 
Confucius,  I.,  14,   15,  18,  114 
Copying,  picture,  II.,  51 
Corean  art,  I..  42-3,  45-51,  56-8,  90-1 

Daigo,  Emperor,  I.,  149,  153 
Daitokuji,  Monastery  of,  I.,  120,  II.,  72-5 
Dancing,  Japanese,  I.,  154 
Danshidzui,  II.,  56 
Daruma,  I.,  39 

Davis,  Dwight,  Collection,  II.,  71,  96 
Dembodo,  I.,  115 
Dengio,  I.,  145-6 
Densu,  Cho,  11. ,  70-2 
Designing,  Cloth,  II.,  178 
Donatello,  I.,  43,  70 
Dosui  (Saicho),  I.,  145 
Dow,  Professor,  I.,  xv.-xvii. 
Drama,  Japanese,  I.,  xii.,  181,  II.,  66-7, 
123,  160 

ElKWAN,  I.,  163 

Engi  Period,  I.,  149-62 

Enjihei,  II.  (Yu  Tz'u-p'ing),  46 

Enriakuji,  I.,  145,  163,  170 

Enriuhon  (Yen  Li-pen),  I.,  123,  127,  130, 

132,  134,  II.,  32 
Enriutoku  (Yen  Li-te),  I.,  123 
Erichibo,  I.,  204 
European  influence  on  Chinese  art,   II., 

150,  153  ;  on  Japanese  art,  II.,  106,  201 

Fan  K'van,  see  Hankwan 

FenoUosa,  Ernest,  biography,  I.,  i.-xviii. 

Fenollosa  Collection,  I.,  159-60,  176,  184, 
II.,  71,  74,  86-7,  94,  102,  105,  109,  121, 
123,  175,  177,  182 

Freer  Collection,  I.,  13,  123,  132,  136,  159, 
166,  184,  191,  202,  II.,  9,  29,  37,  38,  58, 
71,  75,  76,  84,  87,  96-7,  109,  121,  126, 
130,  176,  182,  184-5,  188-9,  195,  198, 
201,  203 

Frescoes,  Japanese,  I.,  93 

Fugen,  I.,  136-7 

Fujiwara  Family  and  Period,  I.,  151-168 

Fujo,  II.,  54 

Gangoji,  Temple  of,  I.,  95 

Ganki,  II.,  56 

Ganku,  II.,  38,  175 

Ganrio,  II.,  176 

Gantei,  II.,  176 

Gardening,  Japanese,  II.,  120 


Gardner  Collection,  II.,  137 

Geiami,  II.,  69 

Genghis  Khan,  II.,  34,  52-3 

Genki,  II.,  174 

Genso   (Hsuan  Tsung),  Emperor,  I.,  102, 

118-9,  138,  II.,  56-7 
Gessan,  II.,  54 
Ghandara  art,  I.,  77-9 
Giles,  Professor,  II.,  39,  141 
Ginkakuji,  Palace  of,  II.,  78-9 
Giogi,  I.,  99,  103 
Giogi,  En  no,  I.,  92,  201 
Giokosho,  II.,  177 
Giokuanshi,  II.,  65 
Giokuho,  II.,  176 
Gito,  II.,  175 
Go  School,  I.,  41-2,  43 
Godaigo,  Emperor,  I.,  195-6 
Cxodoshi  (Wu  Tao-tzu),  I.,  38-9,  120,  123, 

127,  129-37,  II-  7-8.  19,  24-5 
Gonse,  M.,  II.,  127 
Goshun,  II.,  173-4 
Grecian  art,  I.,  20 
Grote,  Professor  de,  I.,  24 
Guide  books,  Japanese,  II.,  196 
Gwaldojin-man,  see  Hokusai 

Hachisuka,  Marquis,  II.,  84,  93 

Hai  Period,  I.,  9 

Hamao,  Baron,  II.,  xxv. 

Han  Kan,  see  Kankan 

Han  Period,  I.,  5,  18-27,  88,  95,  112-3 

Han  Wei  Kung,  see  Kantaishi 

Han  Wen  Kung,  see  Kentaishi 

Hangchow   art,    II.,    32-50,    70,    79,    128, 

142-3.  145 
Hankwan,  II.,  8-9 
Harunobu,  II.,  190-3 
Hedin,  Sven,  I.,  82 
Hegel,  I.,  78,  169 
Henjo,  I.,  154 

Hideyoshi,  II.,  90-1,  103-6,  116 
Hijei,  Mount,  I.,  145,  170 
Hiomtsang,  I.,  84-5 
Hirai,  Mr.,  I.,  xxv. 
Hiroshige,  II.,  203-5 
Hirotaka,  Kose,  I.,  161,  167,  168,  184 
Hirth,  Professor,  I.,  24,  74,  II.,  141 
Hishigawa,  see  Hokusai 
Hitomaro,  I.,  99,  103 
Hiu  Tsung,  see  Kiso  Kotei 
Hogen,  I.,  194 
Hoitsu,  II.,  138 
Hojo  Family,  I.,  193 
Hokkei,  II.,  203 
Hokusai,  I.,  xxi.,  II.,  200-3 
Honan,  I.,  26 

Honganji,  Temple  of,  II.,  108 
Horiuji,  Temple  of,  I.,  50,  57-64,  87,  93-5, 

138.  II.,  9 


INDEX 


23 


Hosaigan,  II.,  164 
Hoyen,  II.,  176-7 
Hsia  Kuei,  see  Kakei 
Hsia-lin,  see  Karin 
Hsia  Ming-yuan,  see  Kameiyen 
Hsuan  Tsung,  see  Genso 
Huang  Ch'uan,  see  Kosen 
Huan  Tsong,  see  Kobun 
Hui  Tsung,  see  Kiso  Kotei 
Huwangti,  I.,  9 

Indara,  II.,  51 

Indian  art,  I.,  31-4,  77-84 

Ink  landscape-painting,  I.,  119-20,  141 

Inouye,  Count,  II.,  137 

Inouye,  Professor,  I.,  xxv.,  146 

Ippo,  II.,  176 

lyemitsu,  II.,  114,  116 

lyeyasu,  II.,   iii,  113,  129 

Jakkio  (Kuo  Sze),  II.,  11-13 

Japan  :  history,  I.,  53-7,  91-2,  102-3, 
149-53,  162-3,  169-74,  193.  II-.  60-3, 
88-91,  111-5;  literature,  I.,  99,  I54-.5. 
181,  II.,  124,  160,  187 

Japanese  art :  chronological  chart,  I., 
xxxvi.,  5  ;  Chinese  influence,  I.,  41, 
54-5,  92,  146-7,  II.,  60-88,  91-8,  163-78  ; 
Corean  influence,  I.,  46-52,  54  ;  other 
foreign  influences,  I.,  53-5,  64-5,  II., 
106,  201  ;  Early  Buddhist,  I.,  55-72  ; 
Greco-Buddhist,  I.,  92-115  ;  Tendai  and 
Shingon,  I.,  142-51,  155-68  ;  dawn  of 
secular  art,  I.,  174-7;  Zen,  I.,  203-4; 
modern  aristocratic,  II.,  110-139; 
modern  plebeian,  II.,  158-205.  See  also 
Ashigawa,  Engi,  Fujiwara,  Korin, 
Nobunaga,  Shijo,  Suiko,  Tempei, 
Tokugawa,  Ukiyoye 

Japanese  language,  I.,  146 

Jarves,  II.,  179 

Javanese  art,  I.,  78,  82 

Jinkomi,  II.,  29 

Jito,  Empress,  I.,  92 

Jizo,  I.,  149 

Jocho,  I.,  167-8 

Jomei,  Emperor,  I.,  64 

Josaku,  Soga,  II.,  75 

Josetsu,  II.,  75-6 

Joki  (Hsii  Hi),  I.,  159,  H-,  9 

Kaifonfu,  I.,  9 

Kainen,  Mori,  I.,  xxv. 

Kakei  (Hsia  Kuei),  I.,  126,  II.,  32,  42-5, 

78,  82-3 
Kakki  (Kuo  Hsi),  II.,  4-5,  10-15,  23,  44-5 
Kako,  see  Hokusai 
Kakuyu,  see  Toba  Sojo 
Kamakura  Period,  I.,  178-9 
Kamatori,  I.,  64,  152 


Kameiyen  (Hsia  Ming  Yuan),  II.,  46 

Kanawoka  Family,  I.,  160-2 

Kaneko,  Viscount,  1.,  xxv. 

Kanghi,  Emperor,  II.,  149-54 

Kangwakwai  Artists'  Club,  I.,  xi.,  II.,  27 

Kankan,  II.,  24 

Kano  Hogai,  I.,  xi.-xii. 

Kano  Iscn,  I.,  128-9,  II.,  123 

Kano  Koi,  II.,  116-7 

Kano  Masanobu,  II.,  39,  92-4.  123 

Kano  Minenobu,  II.,  122 

Kano  Mitsunobu,  II.,  116-7,  182-3,  185 

Kano  Morikake,  II.,  121 

Kano  Motonobu,  II.,  89,  94-101.  116-7 

Kano  Naonobu,  II.,  119,  121 

Kano  Sadonobu,  II.,  117 

Kano  Sanraku,  II.,  109,  115,  181-3 

Kano  Sansetsu,  II.,  116 

Kano  Seisen,  II.,  123 

Kano  Shoyei,  II.,  102-3 

Kano  Takanobu,  II.,  115,  117 

Kano  Tambi,  II.,  93 

Kano  Tanshi,  II.,  123 

Kano  Tanyu,  II.,  117-21,  181 

Kano  Tomonobu,  II.,  69,  70,  75,  96,  124 

Kano  Tsunenobu,  II.,  119,  188,  121 

Kano  Utanosuke,  II.,  94,  101-2 

Kano  Yasunobu,  II.,  94 

Kano  Yeisen,  II.,  122 

Kano  Yeitoku,  II.,  69,  118,  124,  181-2 

Kantaishi  (Han  Wei  Kung),  I.,  11 8-9 

Kantei,  Nara,  II.,  75 

Karin  (Hsia-lin),  II.,  45 

Kasuga  Family,  I.,  165-7,  ^74 

Katsukawa,  II.,  188 

Kawasaki  Collection,  I.,  139,  H-.  5^.  ^T^ 

Keibun,  II.,  174-6 

Keiko,  II.,  8 

Keion,  Sumiyoshi,  I.,  189-93,  202 

Keishoki,  II.,  87 

Keitoku,  II.,  147 

Ken  so  (Tai  Tsung),  Emperor,  I.,  140-1 

Kentaishi  (Han  Wen  Kung),  I.,  140 

Kenzan,  II.,  126-7,  1.38-9 

Kienlung,  Emperor,  II.,  149-51 

Kimura,  II.,  46 

Kinkakuii,  Temple  of.  II.,  67-8 

Kinyei  (Ch'in  Ying),II.,  58 

Kioto,   I.,   41,    145-6,    151,  II.,    161.   166, 

168-9 
Kioto  University,  I.,  162,  170,  174 
Ki])ling,  Rudyard,  I.,  2,11.,  200 
Kirei,  11.,  174 
Kiso   Kotei   (Hiu  Tsung),   Emperor,   II.. 

27-8,  30-2,  37 
Kiuhaku,  II.,  109-10 
Kivomitsu,  II.,  190 
Kivomori,  T.,  174,  177,  178 
Kiyonaga,  II.,  193-6,  I97 
Kiyonobu,  II.,  189 


232 


INDEX 


Kobo  Daishi  (Kukai),  I.,  146-9 

Kobun  (Huan  Tsong),  Emperor,  I.,   102, 

201 
Kogaishi  (Ku  K'ai-cliih),  I.,  38,  116,  130, 

II.,  25 
Koken,  Emperor,  I.,  143 
Kokokumei,  II.,  10 
Kokuzo,  I.,  43 
Komachi,  I.,  154 
Konenki,  II.,  51 
Korehisa,  I.,  195 
Korin,  II.,  126-9,  137-9 
Korin  School,  II.,  107,  126-39,  179 
Koriusai,  II.,  192-3 
Kose  Ahimi,  I.,  158 
Kose  Hirotaka,  I.,  161,  167,  168,  184 
Kose  Kanemochi,  I.,  160 
Kose  Kanetaka,  I.,  160 
Kose  no  Kanawoka,  I.,  157-60 
Kose  School,  I.,  157,  160-62 
Kosen  (Huang  Ch'uan),  II.,  9 
Koshi  or  Kung  Tzii,  see  Confucius 
Koso,  Emperor,  II.,  38 
Koyetsu,  I.,  190,  197,  II.,  126-35 
Kozanji,  Temple  of,  I.,  175 
Ku  K'ai-Chih,  see  Kogaishi 
Kublai  Khan,  II.,  53 
Kuchi  Hsiu,  see  Zengetsu  Daishi 
Kuchusai,  II.,  138 
Kukai,  see  Kobo  Daishi 
Kunisada,  II.,  199 
Kuniyoshi,  II.,  199 
Kuo  Hsi,  see  Kakki 
Kuo  Sze,  see  Jakkio 
Kuroda,  Marquis,  II.,  87 
Kusunoki,  I.,  196 
Kutsugen,  I.,  15,  19,  35 
Kwaigetsudo,  II.,  198 
Kvvammu,  Emperor,  I.,  144-6,  151-2 
Kwan  Yii.,  I.,  34 
Kwando,  II.,  8 
Kwanrio,  I.,  147 
Kwansai,  II.,  176 
Kwanyei,  II.,  166,  177 
Kwazan  Inshi  (Ch'en  Tuan),  II.,  20 
Kwazan,  Yokoyama,  II.,  176 

La  Farge,  Mr.  John,  II.,  50,  71 

Lahore  Museum,  I.,  77 

Landscape-painting,  Chinese,  I.,  38-40, 
86,  119-20,  II.,  6-19,  33,  145  ;  Japanese, 
II.,  80,  169-72,  176-7,  204  ;  Kakki  on, 
II.,  IT-19 

Laotse  (Lao-tzu),  I.,  14,  15,  18,  35 

Lao-tzu,  see  Laotse 

Lathrop  Collection,  II.,  201 

Li  An-Chung,  see  Rianchu 

Li  Ch'enp,  see  Risei 

Li  Hung  Chang,  IT.,  152 

Li  Lunjj-mien,  see  Ririomin 


Li  Po,  see  Rihaku 

Li  Sung,  see  Risu 

Li  Ti,  see  Riteiki 

Liang,  see  Rio 

Liang  Ch'ieh,  see  Riokai 

Louis  XIV.,  II.,  115,  150 

Loyang,  I.,  89,  117 

IMa  Hsing  Tsu,  see  Bakoso 

Ma  Kung-hsien,  see  Bakwashi 

Makimono  painting,  1.,  182-93 

Ma  Yuan,  see  Bayen 

Ma-lin,  see  Barin 

Mandara,  I.,  138-9 

Manju,  Three  Ducks,  II.,  38 

Mao  Yih,  sec  Moyeki 

Marcus  Aurehus,  I.,  27 

Masakado,  I.,  172 

Masanobu,  II.,  188-91 

Masks,  Ritual,  I.,  10,  115 

Masuda  Collection,  II.,  171 

Matabei,  II.,  184-5 

Matahei,  II.,  183-5 

Medici  Family,  II.,  79 

Megisthus,  I.,  75 

Meitei  (Ming  Ti),  Emperor,  L,  30 

Mesopotamian  art,  I.,  25-6 

Metal  work,  Japanese,  L,  54-5 

Mi  Yuan-Chang,  see  Beigensho 

Michizane,  I.,  153-4,  185-8 

Millet,  I.,  185,  II.,  179 

Minamoto  Family,  I.,  172 

Ming   Period,    I.,    128-9,    H-,    56-9,    61-2, 

106-8,  124,  142-4 
Mirrors,  Chinese,  I.,  87-8 
Mitsui  brocades,  II.,  178 
Mitsunaga,  Kasuga,  I.,  188-9 
Mitsunobu,  II.,  no 
Miyaoka,  Mr.,  11. ,  70 
Mogiokkan,  II.,  55 
Mohammed,  I.,  84 

Mokkei  (Mu  Ch'i),  I.,  126,  II.,  47-51,  72 
Mokuan  (Mu  An),  II.,  51 
Mommukan,  Sennin,  II.,  62 
Monju,  I.,  136-7 
Mori,  Prince,  II.,  86,  97 
Morikuni,  II.,  121 
Moronobu,  IT.,  186-7 
Morse  Collection,  II.,  201 
Mosho,  II.,  38 
Motomitsu,  I.,  165,  167 
Motonobu,  I.,  135 
Motoori,  II.,  122,  196 
Mototsune,  I.,  152 
Moyeki  (Mao  Yih),  II.,  38 
Mu  An,  see  Mokuan 
Mu  Ch'i,  see  Mokkei 
Murasaki,  I.,  154 
Music,  Japanese,  I.,  153-4 
Mutsuhito,  Emperor,  I.,  144 


INDEX 


233 


Nagamitsu,  Kimura,  II.,  102 

Nagao,  Ariga,  I.,  xviii.,  xxv. 

Nagasaki,  II.,  161-2 

Nakamaro,  Abe  no,  I.,  143 

Nakamura,  Ono  no,  I.,  146-8 

Nangaku,  II.,  174 

Nara,  I.,  102,  144,  145,  198  ;   Museum,  I. 

1 10-4 
Narihira,  I.,  154 
Nazataka,  I.,  195 

Neiso  (Nin  Tsung),  Emperor,  II.,  38-9 
Nemoro,  Professor,  I.,  xxv. 
New  Guinea,  art  of,  I.,  11 
New  Zealand,  art  of,  I.,  iv.,  6-7 
Nin  Tsung,  see  Neiso 
Ninso,  Emperor,  II.,  20-2 
Nishimura  Collection,  II.,  171,  175 
Noami,  II.,  68-g,  77 
Nobunaga  Period,  II.,  102-10 
Nobuzane,  I.,  183-8 
Novels,  Japanese,  I.,  154-5 


Oansaki    (Wang    An-shih),    I.,   162,  II., 

21-3,  33 
Ogishi  (Wang  Hsi-chih),  I.,  37,  130 
Okakura,  Mr.,  I.,  74,  II.,  70 
Oki  (Wang  Hui),  II.,  46 
Okio,  I.,  xxi.,  II.,  166-75 
Okumura,  II.,  189 
Omakitsu  (Wang  Wei),  I.,  1 19-20,  153, 159, 

11.,  7 
Ono  no,  see  Nakamura 
Orcagna,  I.,  70 
Oyoshi,  II.,  20,  22-3 
Ozui,  II.,  174 

Pacific  art,  I.,  3-4 

Pausanias,  I.,  125-6 

Peabody,  George,  I.,  vi. 

Peking,  II.,  142 

Persian  art,  I.,  21,  46-7 

Philippines,  art  of,  I.,  8 

Polo,  Marco,  II.,  52-3,  57 

Poly  elites,  I.,  125 

Portrait-painting,  Japanese,  I.,  177,  197 

Pottery,  Chinese,  I.,  9.   12-13,  22-3,  112, 

139-40,  II.,  36-7,  55,  156-8,  164  ;  Corean. 

I.,  90  ;    Japanese,  I.,  13,  54,  II.,  135  ; 

Persian,  I.,  21 
Praxiteles,  I.,  125-6 
Prints,  Japanese,  II.,  186-205 

Randenshuku,  II.,  55 

Renshiren,  II.,  46 

Renzan,  II.,  176 

Rianchu  (Li  An-chung),  II.,  24,  29 

Rihaku  (Li  Po),  I.,  120,  153 

Rinken,  I.,  203 

Rinnasei,  II.,  45 


Rinno  (Ch'uan  Shih),  II.,  58 

Rinshonen,  II.,  46 

Rio  (Liang)  Period,  I.,  39-40 

Rioga,  I.,  204 

Riokai  (Liang  Ch'ieh),  II.,  46,  57-8 

Rioson,  I.,  204 

Ririomin  (Li  Lung-mien),  I.,   127,  203-4, 

IL,  19,  23-6,  81-2 
Risei  (Li  Ch'eng),  II. ,  8,  10,  24 
Risu  (Li  Sung),  II.,  46 
Riteiki  (Li  Ti),  IL.  29,  37 
Rito,  II. ,  29,  37 
Rome,  trade  with  China,  I.,  20 
Rosetsu,  II. ,  174 
Rubens,  I.,  185 

Saicho,  see  Dosui 

Saisho,  Count,  II. ,  84 

Sanraku,  II. ,  115 

Sarson  sect,  I.,  58 

Scopas,  I.,  125 

Sculpture,  Chinese,  I.,  40-3,  86-7.  139-40  ; 

Corean,    I.,    50-1  ;     Indian,    I.,    79-81  ; 

Japanese,     I.,    59-72,     95-106,    108-10, 

147-9,  167-8,  197-201 
Seiho,  Takenouchi,  II. ,  177 
Seiki,  II. ,  176 

Sen-Shunkio  (Chien-Shun  Ch'ii),  II. ,  54 
Serioji,  L,  35 

Sesshu,  I.,  128,  136,  II.,  59,  77-88 
Sesson,  II. ,  78 
Shabuson,  II.,  165 
Shang  Period,  I.,  5,  11 
Shantung,  I.,  26 
Shareiun,  I.,  38,  II. ,  33 
Shiba  School,  I.,  197,  201 
Shiba  Onko  (Ssii-ma  Kuang),  II. ,  22 
Shigemasa,  II. ,  193 
Shigenaga,  1 1.,  189,  196 
Shijo  School,  II. ,  172-5,  178,  197 
Shingon  art,  I.,  147,  160  ;   sect,  I.,  146 1 
Shinto,  I.,  154 
Shiubun,  II. ,  76-7 
Shohaku,  En  no,  I.,  143 
Shiugetsu,  IL,  87 
Shohaku,  IL,  166 

Shomu,  Emperor,  I.,  102,  105,  108-10 
Shotoku,  Prince,  I.,  49,  55-7 
Shubun,  II. ,  72-5 
Shuki  (Chu  Hsi).  II. ,  34,  39.  164 
Shuko,  IL,  78,  87 
Shun,  Emperor,  I.,  9 
Shuncho,  II. ,  195 

Shunkio,  Crumpled  Camellias,  II. ,  54 
Shunman,  II. ,  196 
Shunro.  see  Hokusai 
Shunslio,  IL,  193,  196 
Shushi,  see  Shuki 
Singranfu,  I.,  86 
So  Fukko.  I.,  38 


234 


INDEX 


Soami,  II.,  87 

Soan,  II.,  87 

Soga  Family,  I.,  152 

Sokokuji,  Temple  of,  II.,  75 

Sonkuntaku,  II.,  57 

Sori,  see  Hokusai 

Sorin,  II.,  164 

Sosen,  II.,  38,  174-5 

Soshiseki,  II.,  164 

Soshu,  II.,  109 

Sotan,  II.,  87 

Sotatsu,  II.,  135-7 

Spencer,  Herbert,  I.,  ix. 

Ssii-ma  Kuang,  see  Shiba  Onko 

Stein,  Mr.,  I.,  82-3,  86 

Su-Tsung,  see  Tokuso 

Sugawara,  see  Michizane 

Sugo,  II.,  54 

Sui  dynasty,  I.,  42 

Suiko  Period,  I.,  55-64 

Sumiyoshi,  Hirokata,  I.,  158,  176,  II.,  70 

Sung  Period,  I.,  5,  11,  37,   128,  163,  II., 

3-4,  7-19,  24-9,  30-59,  143.  145 
Sushun,  Emperor,  II.,  55 
Sutaku,  see  Toba-in 

Tai  Tsung,  see  Kenso 

Taibunshin,  II.,  57 

Taichu,  II.,  174 

Taigado,  II.,  165 

Taimadera,  I.,  115 

Taira  Family,  I.,  172-8 

Taishi,  Shotoku,  I.,  68 

Taiso,  Emperor,  I.,  84 

Taisu  (Tai  Sung),  II.,  29 

Takachika,  I.,  166,  167,  174 

Takamochi,  I.,  172 

Takamura,  I.,  146-7 

Takanji,  Ashikaga,  II.,  60 

Takanobu,  I.,  176-7 

Takitaro,  see  Hokusai 

Takuma  Family,  I.,  165,  203 

Tamamushi,  Shrine  of,  I.,  49 

Tameichi,  see  Hokusai 

Tamura-maro,  I.,  171 

Tang   (To)   Period,    I.,   5,   84-9,   92,    loi, 

112-4,  123-8,  130-42,  146-9,  163,  II.,  19, 

71,  124 
Tani  Buncho  School,  II.,  166 
Tankei,  I.,  198,  200 
T'ao  Yiian-ming,  see  Toemmei 
Taoism,  I.,  15-16,  26,  36-7,  39,  II.,  2,  11, 

13.  20,  34 
Tatsumi,  Mr.,  I.,  xxv. 
Tatsuta,  I.,  57 
Teishi,  II.,  34 
Teramu,  Emperor,  I.,  92 
Tempci  Period,  I.,  102-15,  148-9 
Tcnchi,  Emperor,- 1.,  68 
Tendai  art,  I.,  138-40,  142-51,  155-68 


Tendai  Daishi,  I.,  139 

Tenjin,  see  Michizane 

Tesso  (Cheh  Tsung),  Emperor,  II.,  23 

Tetsuzan,  II.,  174 

To,  see  Tang 

Toba,  Chinese  artist,  II.,  10,  26-7 

Toba-in,  Emperor,  I.,  175 

Toba  Sojo,  Japanese  artist,  I.,  174-5 

Tobun,  II.,  87 

Toemmei  (T'ao  Yiian-ming),  I.,  37,  II.,  33 

Tofukuji,  Temple  of,  II.,  69-71 

Togo,  Admiral,  I.,  193 

Tokei,  II.,  174 

Tokisho  (Tung  Ch'i-chang),  II.,  144-5 

Tokiwa  Gozen,  I.,  177  ^    ^ 

Toko,  II.,  174  '■'.' 

Tokugawa  Period,  II.,  88-102,  111-205 

Tokuso  (Su-Tsung),  I.,  140 

Tori  Busshi,  I.,  68 

Torii  School,  II.,  188-9 

Torin,  II.,  58,  201 

Tosa  School,  I.,  27,  180-204,  H-.  125-7,  ^79 

Tsing  Period,  II.,  140-58 

Tsunetaka,  I.,  194 

Toyoharu,  II.,  192-3,  196 

Toyohiko,  II.,  174-5 

Toyokuni,  II.,  197-9 

Toyonobu,  II.,  190 

Tung  Ch'i-chang,  see  Tokisho 

Uda,  Emperor,  I.,  153 
Ukiyoye  School,  II.,  107,  179-205 
Unkei,  II.,  87 
Utamaro,  II.,  197-9 

Vanderbilt,  Mr.  George,  II.,  194 
Vasubandhu,  I.,  78,  121 

Wa  Tei,  Emperor,  I.,  15 

Wang  An-shih,  see  Oansaki 

Wang  Hsi-chih,  see  Ogishi 

Wang  Hui,  see  Oki 

Wang  Wei,  see  Omakitsu 

Wen  Wang,  I.,  14 

Whistler,  I.,  xxi.,  II.,  36,  42,  43,  45,  76, 

82,  128,  179,  204 
Wood-carving,  Japanese,  I.,  104-6,  loS 
Wordsworth,  II.,  7 
Wu,  II.,  21 

Wu  Tao-tzu,  see  Godoshi 
Wu  Ti,  see  Butei 
Wu  Ting  Fang,  II.,  143 
Wunkei,  I.,  198-201 
Wunkin,  II.,  164 
Wutei,  Emperor,  I.,  19 

Xavier,  St.  Francis,  II.,  90 

Yakushiji,  Temple  of,  I.,  96-9 
Yamana,  I.,  184 


INDEX 


235 


Yamanaka  Collection,  II.,  134 

Yamato  art,  I.,  164-8 

Yan,  Emperor,  I.,  9 

Yang  Pu-chih,  see  Yohoshi 

Yedo  art,  II.,  179-205 

Yeiga,  I.,  204,  II.,  65 

Yeisen,  II.,  199,  205 

Yeishi,  II.,  197-9 

Yeishin  Sozu,  I.,  164-5,  167 

Yeizan,  II.,  199 

Yen  Li-pen,  see  Enriuhon 

Yen  Li-te,  see  Enriutoku 

Yogetsu,  II.,  87 

Yohoshi  (Yang  Pu-chih),  II.,  37 

Yokei,  II.,  40 

Yokihi,  I.,  138 

Yoritomo,  I.,  177-80 

Yosetsu,  II.,  102 


Yoshimasa,  II.,  76-9 

Yoshimitsu,  I.,  194.  202,  II.,  61-4.  67-8 

Yoshinobu,  I.,  194 

Yoshitsune,  I.,  177-9,  189 

Yu,  Emperor,  I.,  9 

Yu  Tz'u-p'ing,  see  Enjihei 

Yuen  Period.  I.,  53-5,  II..  143-4 

Yuhi,  II.,  164 

Yuima,  Upasaka,  I.,  38 

Yukihiro,  I.,  I95 

Yukimitsu,  I.,  195 

Yung  Ching,  Emperor,  II.,  151-1 

Yutei,  II.,  166 


Zengetsu  Daishi  (Kuchi  Hsiu),  I.,  127, 

142 
Zeshin,  I.,  136 


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